SECONT OOPV, 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. Copyright No.. 

8he]LL&l9l 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



SOCIAL PHASES OF EDUCATION IN 
THE SCHOOL AND THE HOME 



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SOCIAL PHASES OF EDUCATION 

IN THE SCHOOL AND 

THE HOME 



BY y 
V 

SAMUEL T. BUTTON 

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, BROOKLINE, MASS. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1899 

All rights reserved 

1 



cfe'ih.^ 



J)2 



30558 



Copyright, 1899, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 

TWOCOPIFS RSCr.lVED, 



\pR261899 



Norfaootr ^^rraa 

J. S. Cushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith 

Norwood Masi. U.S.A. 



Ei\i& Book 



IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
TO THOSE TEACHERS AND PARENTS WHOSE 
INTEREST IN THE CHILD LEADS THEM TO IN- 
QUIRE, NOT ONLY, WHAT LESSONS IS HE LEARN- 
ING ? BUT ALSO, WHAT LIFE IS HE LIVING ? 



PREFACE 

There was a time when education was regarded 
as a matter belonging exclusively to the school. Its 
problems were not seriously studied except by teach- 
ers. To-day there is no subject that excites greater 
public interest. Fathers and mothers are anxious to 
understand the aims and methods of the school ; 
they are also interested to know how other educa- 
tional forces in the community may be utilized in 
such a manner as to insure the best growth and 
development of their children. 

The chapters of this volume are selected from 
lectures given during the past two years at Harvard, 
Chicago, and Boston Universities, and from papers 
read before the American Social Science and the 
National Educational Associations. The point of 
view is in all cases social rather than scholastic, and 
the ideas emphasized are as worthy of consideration 
by parents as by teachers. No apology is offered for 



viii PREFACE 

putting these papers into permanent form, although 
the venture would not have been made except at the 
urgent request of educational friends whose judg- 
ment is respected. It is only as questions are stated 
from different points of view, and as large masses of 
experience are accumulated, that there is hope of 
avoiding mistakes and of making educational prac- 
tice conform to the dictates of science and common 
sense. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Social Aspects of the Home and the School 3 

The Modern School, and what it owes to Froebel 

AND Herbart 39 

The School and the Child . . . . . 61 

Phases of the Course of Study .... 89 

Educational Progress 121 

The Relation of Education to Vocation . -143 

The Relation of the Church to the School . .169 

Education as a Cure for Crime . . . .201 

The Correlation of Educational Forces in the 

Community 223 

The Brookline Education Society and its Work . 241 



SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 
AND THE SCHOOL 



SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 
AND THE SCHOOL 

The whole creation reifiects the idea that life 
exists for life. I do not refer to the fact that 
higher forms destroy and devour the lower, but 
rather to the more hopeful view which presents one 
species as performing service not only to those of 
its own kind, but even to those of other species. 
Certain plant forms render aid to others by fur- 
nishing shade and protection and by conserving 
moisture. The social spirit exhibited by certain 
animals may well put to shame the selfishness 
revealed in some phases of human conduct. A 
student of natural history has discovered many an 
instance of one-sided mutualism where one species 
performs service for another without receiving any in 
return, as well as instances where the service is mu- 
tual. A recent article entitled " Science and Faith " 
cites a host of interesting cases of the former class 
of which the following is a good illustration : — 

3 



4 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

"A little bird called Trochilus renders two forms 
of service to the crocodile on the banks of the Nile ; 
it enters his mouth and despatches the worms and 
leeches which trouble him, and when the ichneumon, 
which is an enemy to the crocodile, approaches, the 
bird flies away, giving vent to a peculiar cry which 
apprises his friend of the danger. The only ser- 
vice which the crocodile renders in return is the 
shaking of his tail when he wishes to close his 
mouth, thus giving the bird warning." 

Darwin has pointed out that before the age of 
man societies of animals and birds existed in infinite 
numbers, in which a great variety of mutual service 
was rendered, and that domestication has only de- 
veloped those qualities that preexisted in the species. 
The altruism of a well-bred dog which so often 
calls forth our wonder and admiration is only a 
straw floating on the current of creation. It shows 
the drift of things in God's universe. 

This principle of peaceful and harmonious com- 
bination in mutual service which is so beautifully 
illustrated in vegetable and animal life has made 
its way in human society only slowly. Individual 
excellence has been far more conspicuous than 
social adaptation. The types of character devel- 



AND THE SCHOOL 5 

oped in the ancient world impress us by their 
intense individualism. He who gained wealth and 
power, whether a Solomon, a Croesus, an Alexander, 
or a Caesar, seemed to have little capacity for minis- 
tering to others. Both Greece and Rome permitted 
a few to gain wealth, luxury, and learning, while the 
masses were poor and ignorant. 

The new education of which we have heard so 
much in later years really began its work when 
the great Teacher summoned the world to a life of 
service. He said, "Whosoever among you will be 
great, shall be your minister, and whosoever of you 
will be chiefest, shall be servant of all, for the 
Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister." Can any one doubt that this was the 
announcement of a fundamental principle of life 
and action, rather than merely a figure of speech 
or a theory to be preached about on Sunday ? Is 
it not becoming more and more clear that the 
regeneration of the individual as well as of society 
is to be accomplished only as this principle becomes 
incarnated in men and women .'' Is it not gradually 
dawning upon our consciousness that in their better 
forms socialism and Christianity are but synony- 
mous terms ? Christian sentiment and faith that 



6 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

are not transmuted into service are soon seen to 
be but " sounding brass and tinkling cymbal." Dean 
Hodges in his suggestive work on " Faith and 
Social Service " shows how new forces have come 
into the world bringing new ideas, new dangers, 
new responsibilities, and new relationships. He 
points out that progress in commerce, industry, 
and politics, calls for a more willing service of man 
to man, that education and religion are all deeply 
affected by the idea that "Man liveth not to him- 
self alone," that in an important sense he is " his 
brother's keeper," and that he will be held respon- 
sible measurably for his welfare. 

If education is to do its best work, it must adapt 
itself to those conditions and requirements which 
exist at any given period. The demands of one 
hundred, fifty, or even of twenty-five years ago differ 
from those of to-day, hence education has become 
more and more a progressive factor, progressive 
not only in its conception, aims, and ideals, but in 
its means, methods, and appliances. At an age 
when intelligence, honor, faith, and wisdom are 
deemed higher attainments than houses, lands, and 
bank-stocks, the kind of educational process to which 
young and old are subjected by means of the home, 



AND THE SCHOOL 7 

the school and the Church, and other uplifting influ- 
ences, becomes of transcendent importance. 

It is my purpose at this time to consider what 
relation these forces of education sustain to the 
individual, thinking of his social obligation. No 
one denies that personal character is a most worthy 
aim in education. Plato and Kant agreed in defin- 
ing education as the process of giving to the indi- 
vidual all the perfection of which he is capable ; but 
this definition seems inadequate now when religion 
and philanthropy are both striving to increase social 
consciousness and to discover the broadest avenues 
of social service. 

It is the function of the prophet and the preacher 
not so much to discover new truth as to bring forth 
the meaning of ancient truth. I venture to pre- 
dict that it is not new definitions of education we 
need so much as better and broader conceptions of 
ideals and standards that have long been accepted. 
Two aims which have been most generally men- 
tioned in educational practice are "preparation for 
vocation" and "general culture." The belief has 
been prevalent that these two ideals were in some 
way antagonistic. Is it not possible that they have 
been seen in wrong perspective.'' It is true that 



8 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

the word "vocation" suggests work, struggle for 
food, clothing, shelter, support of home and family, 
and participation in the vicissitudes of supply and 
demand. We know that the whole stream of hu- 
manity, that has floated down the centuries from 
the Garden of Eden to the present moment, has 
generally been obliged to toil. What some have 
denominated a curse has probably been in reality the 
greatest of blessings. The wisest of people have 
assured us that man has received the better part 
of his education through work, and it is worthy 
of notice that manual activity is now becoming an 
educational factor in the schools. But it has always 
been thought more or less desirable to avoid the 
exactions of labor. Men have sought wealth be- 
cause of the freedom from toil, and the opportunities 
for leisure, travel, and society which it affords ; and, 
even now, it would be a great error to say that 
hard, unremitting labor is an unmixed blessing. Is 
it not true, however, that the number of good peo- 
ple who absolutely shirk labor is vastly less to-day 
than ever before.? In other words, the notion that 
man's physical, moral, and spiritual welfare are 
best conserved through useful activity is fast be- 
coming an accepted truth by all civilized peoples. 



AND THE SCHOOL 9 

While the apparent inequaHties of fortune are 
tremendous, it is a serious question to-day who 
toils the harder, he who without wealth labors for 
his daily bread, or he who, having wealth, has not 
only to care for it, but has to exercise his judg- 
ment in respect to the infinite number of demands 
made upon him. Moreover, it has become quite 
unfashionable to be idle. Social work absorbs the 
time and interest of an increasing number of peo- 
ple. Between the ordinary demands of society 
and public duties which people undertake, the so- 
called well-to-do and prosperous become the hard- 
est-worked people in the community. It becomes 
apparent, therefore, that from the point of view of 
human society, we must give to vocation a much 
broader significance than has hitherto belonged to 
it, and, on the other hand, we must regard culture 
as chiefly valuable for the ability it gives a person 
to use wisely his powers and resources, whatever 
they may be. What father or mother to-day thinks 
of educating a son or a daughter to be simply 
neutral or ornamental, and to take no part in the 
world's work.? The children of the sovereigns of 
Europe are often trained not only to perform menial 
tasks, but are required to perfect themselves in some, 



lO SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

at least, of the arts of domestic industry and life. 
Their example is, I believe, generally followed by 
the wise parents of Christendom, and thus that awful 
historic chasm between those who toil and those 
who seek leisure is being largely bridged over. 
No one dreads to be classed as a worker in the 
best sense, and vocation has a richer, deeper mean- 
ing than ever before, because within its scope there 
is ample room for all the refinements and accom- 
plishments of culture. We should then agree with 
Benjamin Franklin, who said : " He who hath a 
trade hath an estate, and he who hath a calling 
hath an office of profit and honor." We should 
also join with Carlyle in declaring that, " Labor, 
wide as the earth, hath its summit in Heaven." 
This last quotation seems to harmonize the voca- 
tional aim and the culture aim, and to suggest that 
vocation, in its infinite variety of form, is one in 
its purpose ; namely, to minister to the support of 
the home, and to render service to human society. 
It is not necessary that in time of war every citizen 
should prove his patriotism by enlisting as a sol- 
dier; neither do the conditions of the ideal com- 
munity require that everybody should work in the 
shop or the factory, or should build roads, or dig 



AND THE SCHOOL II 

cellars in order to be true to the claims of vocational 
duty. The avenues which lead to useful service 
are many. The discoveries of science have opened 
up numerous fields of activity by which the strong- 
holds of disease have been successfully attacked, 
and human life has not only been prolonged, but 
many of its terrors have been overcome. Inven- 
tion has substituted machinery for manual labor, 
shortening the hours of toil and affording for the 
masses better opportunities for recreation and self- 
improvement. Those who find their vocation in 
the pursuit of literature and the fine arts are as 
truly workers as those who dig and delve. They 
render inestimable service to mankind by minister- 
ing to the higher life, by supplying lofty ideals, and 
by giving hope and courage to multitudes. Many 
a man and woman, who to the casual eye appears 
to have no vocation and to be an idler, is silently 
working out some problem whose solution is to 
bless the race. 

Thus the human hive presents vast complexity 
in respect to the kind and quality of the work 
that is done. Were we to go over the whole round 
of occupations, we should find that the quality of 
serviceableness may be present, whether the indi- 



12 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

vidual labors with his hands or with the subtler 
qualities of the mind. But we discover great dif- 
ferences respecting the spirit in which work is 
done. It may be performed selfishly with the sole 
desire for personal emolument, or it may be ren- 
dered in full consciousness of human needs and a 
desire to make the world better and happier. It 
is essential that toilers of every class should be 
conscious of their social obligations, that they 
should have a friendly regard for those who ren- 
der service in other departments. The honest 
laborer should everywhere command respect; cap- 
tains of industry should encourage and foster the 
self-respect and manhood of their employees ; they 
should render them a just share of the profits. 
Wherever profit sharing has been tried the quality 
and efficiency of the service is said to have been 
increased. Colonel Waring in solving the problem 
of street cleaning in New York did two notable 
things : first, he brought science to bear in such a 
way as to promote health and economy ; second, 
he made every man on his force a self-respecting, 
cooperating agent in the enterprise. What he did 
many others should strive to do. While science, 
philanthropy, and religion are endeavoring to ele- 



AND THE SCHOOL 1 3 

vate, enrich, and sweeten human life, all the forces 
of education should be charged with the same 
spirit. 

Let us consider briefly what such a standard as 
this would require of the home and the school. 
The home, where the child first awakens to intel- 
ligence and looks out upon a world full of wonders 
and upon people engaged in various pursuits, is, 
or ought to be, the most central force in educa- 
tion. Professor Josiah Royce, in a remarkable 
course of lectures, has brought into clear relief 
the social factors in the growth of the individual 
mind. He showed that social contact is a con- 
trolHng element. The child at once begins to imi- 
tate, and through social experience comes to know 
intimately the very motives and feelings of those 
with whom it is associated. Family life, that 
inner sanctuary of society, is so closely adjusted 
and the relations are so intimate that the ques- 
tion, "of what character it is," becomes of tran- 
scendent importance ; hence, there are two distinct 
reasons why the home is influential as an educa- 
tional factor : first, because the child spends here 
his most impressible years ; and second, because as 
a type of a social community its relations are 



14 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

exceedingly close and influential. Now a home 
may be social or unsocial. Selfishness may reign 
supreme, or mutual love and consideration may 
diffuse themselves throughout the whole atmos- 
phere. The home life should jealously guard and 
foster the best things of childhood, naturalness, 
simplicity in manner and dress, courtesy not only 
to superiors but to servants. The child should be 
trained not only to receive but to give kind- 
ness. His sympathy for the poor and unfortunate 
should be awakened, and he should have expe- 
rience in judicious acts of giving. He should early 
learn the pleasure of sharing his best possessions 
with others. Many children are thus until they 
are trained to be otherwise, or, in other words, 
become conventionalized. Men and women, who 
as children were trained to be separate and exclu- 
sive, find it hard in after life to combine with 
others and to be truly democratic. There is often 
such a lack of genuineness and such apparent 
artificiality that no one is deceived, and personal 
influence is greatly curtailed. 

The home should be full of strong human inter- 
ests, and people should be rated for what they 
really are, and not for what they appear to be on 



AND THE SCHOOL 1 5 

the outside. Parents owe it to their children and 
to society to surround themselves with such means 
of inspiration and culture as are found in the best 
books, choicest pictures, and the most upUfting 
music, so that their children may, as far as possible, 
find their pleasure and amusement in the home. 
Parents should open their homes to the learned 
and refined. If possible, they should travel for 
the sake of that breadth of view and fine temper 
which gives such a charm to the family circle. All 
the grace and dignity that fathers and mothers 
acquire through inheritance, education, society, lit- 
erature, and art are sure in some measure to be 
reflected in the future lives of their children. 

I have mentioned these trite and perhaps com- 
monplace requirements of a good home, not so much 
for what they are in themselves, as for what they 
mean in shaping the life of the child for the service 
which he may be called upon to render. His sym- 
pathies, motives, as well as his powers of action 
must be zealously guarded and trained. There are 
too many people in the world to-day who are doing 
some work, and perhaps doing it well, who do not 
possess the joy of service. There are also those 
who have means more than they need, yet who do 



1 6 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

not know how to share with others. Many such 
live and die without experiencing the true joy of 
living. The fault in such cases was largely with 
the home. There was wanting that strong current 
of home interest and benevolent desire to help others 
which gives a distinct cast to the human character. 
As the time approaches when children are in- 
trusted to the care of the school, they should be 
made to feel that the confidence and regard of 
parents goes with them, that teachers are to have 
the fullest support of the home, and they, on their 
part, are to cooperate in making the school as happy 
and useful as possible. This leads me to say that 
the school is another form of social life. It is 
emphatically a social institution, and here, as in the 
home, the culture aim and the vocational aim are 
to be harmonized in a larger purpose; namely, to 
socialize the youth and to fit him to take his place 
in society and to render the best service of which 
he is capable. He may be proficient in this or that 
study, he may be prepared to be a good citizen, a 
good workman, or a successful practitioner in some 
profession, but this is not the end, for better than 
any of these things is to be a man or a woman in 
the fullest social sense. 



AND THE SCHOOL 1 7 

As in the ideal community, so in the ideal school, 
people are interested not only in making laws and 
obeying them themselves, but in having others do 
the same, so that the enforcement of law is secured 
by the consent and with the approval of the citizens. 
Individuals are seen to be considerate of each other, 
and mutually helpful over and above what the law 
requires. Conduct is often marked by such courtesy, 
regard, and mutual helpfulness, as to overshadow 
law and authority, and to suggest that the Golden 
Rule is operative. Looking still more closely, we 
find that some are constantly engaged in rendering 
assistance to those less fortunate than themselves. 
In this way the poor are relieved, the sick, neglected, 
the defective and the unfortunate are provided for 
with suitable care and attention. Money is given 
freely by the living, and generous legacies are made 
for worthy benevolences. Thus, we find law, con- 
vention, and the altruistic spirit, more or less active 
in every good community. The good citizen never 
forgets his responsibilities as a social being, and is 
ever seeking opportunities of doing good. The 
picture drawn by Edward Bellamy in his book en- 
titled " Looking Backward " suggests a time when 
the altruistic spirit shall become dominant, when men 



1 8 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

will rely less upon the dictations of law and conven- 
tionality than they do now. 

If the object of the school is to socialize the child, 
to make him acquainted with his environment and 
conscious of his obligations to others, then the whole 
life of the school must be fashioned somewhat after 
this ideal community to which I have referred. Con- 
cerning school government, there must be laws, but 
they cannot proceed from autocratic authority or 
be enforced in an ostentatious manner. The laws 
of the school must spring from the good sense of 
the pupils. There must be a public spirit which 
will lead all to cooperate, not only in framing these 
laws and in observing them, but in wishing to have 
others observe them. This is self-government, and 
although when young, immature persons are culti- 
vating the power of self-government there are obvi- 
ously many lapses and failures, this is no cause for 
discouragement as long as there is faith on the part 
of teachers and pupils that ultimate success is cer- 
tain. This effort for self-government seeks to mini- 
mize authority and to intensify individual self-control 
and self-direction. In a nation where the military 
system prevails, and the government is more or less 
despotic, as in Germany, the aim in the schools is 



AND THE SCHOOL 



19 



likely to be to see how much or how thoroughly 
pupils can be governed, while in this country the 
aim is ever to see how well pupils may govern them- 
selves. The social spirit applied in self-government 
is one of sympathy and faith in the possibility of 
better things, of patience in dealing with faults, and 
of merciful leniency which often touches the heart 
of the offender and wins from him more strenuous 
endeavor. It is interesting to note in certain second- 
ary schools that the matter of government has been 
turned over to committees of pupils who have under- 
taken to secure good order and cooperation without 
the aid of teachers. Thus, every pupil becomes 
actively interested not only in being courteous, or- 
derly, and helpful himself, but in having his asso- 
ciates combine with him in this social effort. 

We have heard much in the past about the 
building up of character, but there can be no ex- 
cellent results in this direction except through the 
spontaneous and patriotic willingness on the part 
of young people to help others to do the same. 
The trouble has often been that school discipline 
has been so organized and refined as to prevent 
the free spontaneous growth of high motives and 
lofty aims. The experience gained by young 



20 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

people in attempting to subjugate individual will 
and caprice in the interest of the body politic 
reacts favorably and calls into play those elements 
that tend to give poise and nobility of character. 
The George Junior Republic of Freeport, N.Y., 
is a striking instance of the successful working out 
of democratic principles and methods in the control 
of youth. This experiment, although in many 
respects crude and not devoid of objectionable 
features, is a good object lesson to educators of 
what may be accomplished in character building 
where normal methods are used. The most suc- 
cessful summer camps for boys have been managed 
in the same way. I shall not soon forget the 
agreeable picture presented at one of these camps 
which I visited at Lake Squam in New Hampshire. 
It was Reception Day, and the boys not only par- 
ticipated in the games, but acted as hosts, and in 
the performance of all their functions preserved 
that gentlemanly bearing and exhibited that cour- 
teous consideration for all that gave one the im- 
pression of a highly socialized community. 

Whether in camp or in school, affiliated 
organizations like Athletic Associations, Debating 
Clubs, and Literary Societies, afford large oppor- 



AND THE SCHOOL 21 

tunities for training young people to conduct affairs, 
and at the same time to govern themselves. Even 
in grammar schools, I have known of instances 
where, in the absence of the teacher, the exercises 
of the school have been carried through the entire 
day by the pupils with little to mar the occasion. 
The teacher who cannot leave the room or turn his 
back upon his pupils without causing unseemly con- 
duct has before him a serious social problem, and one 
to which he can well afford to devote himself. The 
best results in self-government are not attained in 
any given school until all teachers are enHsted in 
the enterprise and pupils are led up to the neces- 
sary moral altitude by regular and easy steps. 

Let us examine another feature of the school 
life, namely, the recitation, and see what its social 
possibilities are. Here we have what is usually 
regarded as the most vital element in the school 
life. The showing made by pupils in a recitation 
determines their standing in the school, and to a 
greater or less extent, establishes their claims to 
consideration and respect by teachers and asso- 
ciates. The school as a whole is judged by the 
nature of the efforts put forth in recitation more 
than by other phases of its activity. But the 



22 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

questions before us now are : Is the recitation usually 
social or unsocial ? Is it conducted with a view 
to the highest good of all, or does it often promote 
a selfish and unsocial attitude on the part of the 
members of the community ? These are pressing 
questions, and those of us who are pledged to seek 
the highest ideals in education cannot easily set 
them aside. The problem may be presented in 
this way : Is the acquisition of knowledge of such 
tremendous importance that the social code is to 
be constantly violated in the schoolroom ? Is it 
not often that, in a given recitation, a few brilliant 
pupils are permitted to do all the work, and that, 
too, with an air of superiority which is in the high- 
est degree unsocial ? There are, no doubt, many 
legitimate ends to be attained in a recitation, such 
as testing the pupil's information and ability to 
respond, giving practice in concise, logical state- 
ment, the explanation and illumination by the 
teacher of difficult questions, and the stimulation 
of the pupils to greater interest and zeal in their 
studies, but over and above all these, is not the 
social aim preeminent? Mere display of knowl- 
edge by teacher or pupils is of little account if it 
does not minister to the need of others. The 



AND THE SCHOOL 23 

recitation affords a fine opportunity for coopera- 
tion and mutual assistance. The teacher should 
not be too prominent. Every pupil should partici- 
pate, every one should make his contribution, at 
least by earnest attention and interest, if not 
through oral or written speech. When one makes 
a statement or offers an opinion, it should be heard 
courteously and received for what it is worth. The 
slow, hesitating pupils should not be embarrassed 
by the frantic efforts to be heard of those who, 
though bright and eager, are perchance selfish and 
unsocial in their demeanor. Even the conven- 
tionalities of social life would restrain such uncivil 
interruptions as are often seen, while the higher, 
altruistic spirit, if fully developed in the school 
circle, would guard with much sympathy and con- 
sideration the weaker and less able pupils who are 
endeavoring faithfully to do their part. The selfish 
desire of pupils to excel, which in itself is not 
reprehensible, often tends to a kind of competition 
that is unsocial and which, as we see it matured 
in men, gives us those monopolies and trusts which 
are such a menace to the welfare of the people. 
Who has not seen teachers urging pupils on in 
the practice of competition, paying tributes of 



24 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

praise to brilliant performances and possibly cast- 
ing a shir u]K)n slow and incapable pupils? How 
can we expect society to be freed from those prac- 
tices which tend to make the talented more arro- 
gant, the rich more selfish, and the condition of 
the poor more helpless and discouraging, as long 
as the school fosters selfish interests ? Mow often 
have we been surprised to learn that one whom, as 
a pupil, we regarded as of little promise and hardly 
worthy of our teaching, has been able in actual life 
to surmount all obstacles and to reach comparative 
success ? We then regret to think that we can 
take no credit to ourselves for his achievements. 
The governing iirinciple of the recitation should 
be, not c()nii)etition, but cooperation. At least this 
should be the case if we arc to be consistent with 
our |>rofession that character building is the high- 
est aim of education. If we desire to train up a 
generation of men and women who shall recognize 
the ties of human brotherhood, and who shall work 
for social and industrial cooperation, we must 
make the school a mighty factor to that end. 

Consider for a moment some of the studies of 
the school, and see in what way they may be 
made to contribute to the high aim of social ser- 



AND THE SCHOOL 2$ 

vice. The subject of History, both in its content 
and in the general method of treating it, contains 
large social factors. We are dealing here with 
men and women who have lived and wrought in 
the past and those who are living to-day and 
making their contribution to the world's progress. 
No man is so ignorant or so unfitted to be truly 
social as he who knows nothing of the struggles 
by which, step by step, the race has worked its 
way up to its present attainments in civilization. 
His sympathies, interests, and aspirations have be- 
come atrophied for want of nourishment and ex- 
ercise. Knowing little of his brother man, he 
knows little of himself, and his social usefulness 
is greatly curtailed. 

The daily newspaper of to-day is a cross-section 
of the world's busy life, and forms a comprehen- 
sive historical work reflecting every variety of 
activity and affording large ojoportunities for co- 
operative study. The social value of present his- 
tory, dealing as it does with living people, is not 
inferior to that of any other period. 

Science and Manual Training are coming to 
demand more attention in our schools, not only 
because they socialize the school life, but because 



26 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

they establish bonds of vital connection between 
it and the active world. In these subjects are dis- 
covered the elements and principles which are 
fundamental in all industry. The unfortunate and 
unsocial tendencies connected with the rise of 
machinery are in a measure overcome when youth 
are trained in those principles and purposes which 
centre in manufactures. The applications of chem- 
istry and physics are so varied and multiform that 
hardly an industrial establishment exists that does 
not have some form of laboratory, wherein the de- 
mands of youth skilled in these subjects may find 
a ready market. It is a significant fact that in 
the adaptation of Manual Training to the needs 
of our common schools, the lines generally pur- 
sued are those expressed in the fundamental needs 
of mankind, — namely, for food, clothing, and shel- 
ter. The school kitchen, with its studious atten- 
tion to hygiene and nutrition, the sewing school, 
with its lessons in care, thrift, neatness, and econ- 
omy, and the workshop, with its training in deft- 
ness of hand and practical adaptation of means to 
ends, — all these are exceedingly social, not only 
because they touch the elemental wants of man- 
kind, but because they connect the school and the 



AND THE SCHOOL 27 

home, create a close sympathy between parents, 
teachers, and pupils, and tend to level up whole 
communities where the less fortunate reside. Our 
high schools have undergone considerable criti- 
cism ; not that they have taught Latin, Greek, and 
Mathematics, but that they have been too slow to 
see the immense possibilities connected with studies 
in Science and the Manual and Domestic Arts. I 
am not in favor of making the high school a 
trade school or even a technical school ; but let us 
get rid of any fear we may have of studies be- 
cause they possess the elements of utility. It is 
utility that gives all subjects their highest value. 
There should be nothing in our schools that is not 
strongly marked with the element of utility. It is 
this principle that does away with the distinction 
between the vocational aim and the culture aim. 
I do not mean, of course, such utility as can be 
transmuted into money or bonds, but rather such 
as enlarges personality, gives poise, breadth, and 
steadiness, and fits one to live more efficiently and 
helpfully day by day. All true culture makes one 
a better man or woman and renders him more 
serviceable. Likewise, those studies which, by their 
direct connection with the activities of everyday 



28 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

life, seem to lead out toward vocation have in them 
the potential germs of mental, moral, and aesthetic 
culture. 

Take Music, which always and everywhere has 
been the means of elevating human thoughts and 
softening dispositions and reaching the deeper im- 
pulses of the soul. Here we have a branch of 
school study which is intrinsically social as well 
as spiritual in its influence and mission. The social 
value of music as a branch of study consists not 
only in the fact that it reacts favorably upon the 
performer in refining the feelings, giving culture 
to the voice and expression, but also because it 
affords pleasure to others. 

Language as a social instrument, not only in 
the school but in society at large, has been too 
lightly estimated. Great emphasis should be laid 
upon the communication of ideas in a social man- 
ner, making conversation in its true sense an active 
instrument in the school life. It has long been 
said that the ability to use language concisely 
and correctly, in stating the simplest ideas or in 
making known our most common wants, is a 
legitimate aim of education, and it is even ac- 
knowledged that liberal training can give nothing 



AND THE SCHOOL 29 

more valuable than a facile and finished use of 
speech. If we add to this conception of what 
Language is, its importance as a social influence, 
and remember how the very spirit and tone of 
the school are revealed in the conversation between 
teacher and pupil, we begin to realize the vital 
importance of oral and written expression. It would 
appear from this view that every encouragement 
should be given to correct, true, and forcible speech 
so that during the progress of the school life every 
young person may become able to use his mother 
tongue in a manner which will not subject him to 
ridicule or make him appear in any sense unsocial. 
A little book by Professor George H. Palmer, en- 
titled "Self-cultivation in English," has as its clos- 
ing paragraph these words : " If in our utterance 
we think of him who hears as well as of him 
who speaks, and, above all, if we fix the attention 
of ourselves and our hearers on the matter we 
talk about and so let ourselves be supported by 
our subject, we shall make a daily advance, not 
only in English study, but in personal power, in 
general serviceableness, and in consequent delight." 

The word in this quotation to which I wish to 
give special emphasis is " serviceableness." Social 



30 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

service is ever the highest aim in all attainments 
and accomplishments, and however we may strive 
for pure and elegant English for its own sake, 
we must not forget that it increases our power 
of being useful to others. A pupil may be led 
to realize that the voice he uses has much to do 
with the comfort of all who hear. 

Mathematics, while giving one no quick remu- 
neration like the art of Stenography or the craft 
of bricklaying, does furnish the power for delib- 
erate thought and accurate statement, and to speak 
the truth is one of the most social qualities a per- 
son can possess. Gossip, flattery, slander, deceit, 
all spring from a slovenly mind that has not been 
trained in the power of truthful statement, which 
is one of the highest utilities. 

Art may indeed be regarded as a culture study, 
and many believe that it has no place in our 
common schools, but it would not be difficult to 
show that it not only possesses utility, but renders 
invaluable service in illuminating and enriching other 
studies. Art in its creative capacity adds beauty 
to the world, confers happiness, and often trans- 
figures and ennobles what would otherwise be dull 
and commonplace. Even with its power to in- 



AND THE SCHOOL 3 1 

crease one's appreciation of the beautiful, it refines 
the spirit and quickens the sympathy. I believe 
the common people of Germany who hear good 
music almost daily, and visit the great galleries 
of Art on Sunday, have warmer hearts and deeper 
sympathies than the denizens of rural New Eng- 
land, who hear only the music of the farmyard, 
and see no beauty but that of sunrise and sunset 
or the everlasting hills. 

Physical Training, if measured by the same test, 
is seen to have great utility, to give a social power 
to its devotees, and to add something to life. It 
prevents dyspepsia, bodily and mentally, cures mor- 
bidness, establishes soundness of mind ; the man 
who uses dumbbells or Indian clubs for a little 
time every day is sweeter-tempered at home and 
more level-headed in business. The games now 
being introduced into the primary schools are 
strongly tinctured with the social element. They 
tend to break up cliques and promote a more demo- 
cratic spirit. They call for combination and co- 
operation. They insure the benefits of joyous 
physical activity to all, instead of making the sport 
of a select few a spectacle to be witnessed by 
the crowd. This suggests the need of revising 



32 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

all school and college athletics in America to the 
end that a larger number may share in their 
benefits. 

I might pursue this subject farther, but enough 
has been said to suggest that all school studies and 
exercises are capable of being applied to social 
ends, if rightly used, and are even potential in 
respect to the utilities, provided the teacher is 
deeply conscious of the social aim. 

How often in the school, as in the home, are 
we blind to the deeper significance of common 
affairs, in our zeal to accomplish some great thing ! 
In the work of Dean Hodges, to which I have 
already referred, in speaking of the repairing of 
a street as a great problem, he says : " There seems 
at first to be but little connection between paving 
stones and prayer books, but it is plain, when we 
come to think about it, that the condition of the 
street affects the character of the children who 
play in it, and the men and women who live in 
the houses that front upon it. Dirt, disorder, touch 
first the body and then the soul of man. Clean 
people are delivered out of many temptations. 
Courage, and hope, and industry, and diligence, 
and the Christian religion prefer clean houses. 



AND THE SCHOOL 33 

The dirt of the street comes in at the window, 
and all good graces appear to be discouraged. It 
is not without reason that we are taught that in 
the ideal city, the Heavenly Jerusalem, there will 
be clean streets paved with gold." Thus it is in 
respect to the commonplaces of hfe in the home, 
in the school, and in the community, where the 
process of education is ever going on. If directed 
by social insight, these seemingly small matters 
have a far-reaching significance. All who have to 
deal with children, whether those of the rich or 
the poor, the promising or the unpromising, need 
to find that method of approach that touches the 
heart, kindles the feelings, illumines the under- 
standing, arouses ambition, and finally strengthens 
the will and establishes a new life. 

The power of the broadened curriculum of the 
modern school lies in the fact that the blended 
interests which spring from the several studies 
make the school increasingly social, and enables 
it to accomplish its highest aim. Says Dr. Dewey : 
" The teacher is engaged not simply in training 
individuals, but in the formation of the proper 
social life. He is a social servant set apart for 
the maintenance of proper social order and the 



34 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME 

securing of the right social growth." " In this way 
the teacher always is a prophet of the true God 
and the usherer in of the true Kingdom of God." 

Dr. Albion W. Small, also, from a somewhat 
different point of view, urges the social aim in 
education. "This life task of men and women," 
he says, " sets the pedagogical task of teachers." 
"The prime problem of education, as the sociolo- 
gist views it, is how to promote adaptation of the 
individual to the social conditions, natural and arti- 
ficial, in which individuals live and move and have 
their being." And again : " Sociology demands of 
educators finally that they shall not rate themselves 
as leaders of children, but as makers of society. 
The teacher who realizes his social function will 
not be satisfied with passing children from one 
grade to another, but will read his success only in 
the record of men and women who go from the 
school eager to explore wider and deeper those 
social relations, and zealous to do their part in 
making a better future." 

These words focus the thought that I have en- 
deavored to emphasize. The principle of mutual 
dependence and the need of cooperation are present 
in all life. Human relations are so intimate, and 



AND THE SCHOOL 35 

the interests of one individual touch those of 
another at so many points, that the abihty to lead 
a truly social Hfe becomes of the first importance. 
The new education has done far less to change 
the means of instruction than it has to improve its 
spirit and to suggest the higher aims. Education, 
considered as the development of character, sus- 
tains an intimate relation to the work of the 
Church, the home, and those other institutions 
which civilize and refine our modern life. 

The attempt has been made to show that the 
culture aim and the vocational aim are one and 
the same thing, if we give to each its broadest 
significance ; that work, which is the common lot 
of all humankind, becomes dignified and trans- 
figured according as it is applied to higher spirit- 
ual ends. It has been suggested that both the 
home and the school are forms of social life, and 
that, considered as educational factors, they can 
do nothing higher than to promote that social con- 
sciousness which expresses itself in sympathetic, 
generous, helpful cooperation. 

Those of us who labor in the school have much 
to do with courses of study, books, appliances, 
and methods of every sort, but all these count for 



36 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE HOME AND SCHOOL 

but little in comparison with the transcendent im- 
portance of social contact and social experience. 
It has been said by eminent authority that 85% of 
the value of the school lies in the personality of 
the teacher, leaving only 15% for all other means 
and appliances. If this estimate be correct, it is 
only another form of recognition of the great truth 
which I have tried to demonstrate. 

In the development of many arts and industries, 
it has come to pass that certain by-products which 
formerly were discarded as of no value, have now 
come to be more profitable even than the original 
product itself. Thus it is in education ; many 
things in the physical, moral, intellectual, and spir- 
itual nurture of the young which once were thought 
to be of little worth now receive careful attention, 
and may safely be said to increase the capacity 
for useful service as well as for a happy life. 



THE MODERN SCHOOL, AND WHAT 
IT OWES TO FROEBEL AND HER- 
BART 



THE MODERN SCHOOL, AND WHAT 
IT OWES TO FROEBEL AND HER- 
BART 

The education required for any age is deter- 
mined by the character of that age. Human needs 
change and ideals of manhood and womanhood are 
modified, so the methods employed in training the 
young at any particular time will receive an im- 
press and a sanction from the social conditions of 
that time. He who lives to-day with his eyes and 
ears open, is conscious of the fact that people live, 
think, and act faster than ever before. It is an 
age of books and newspapers, and hence of almost 
universal intelligence. By invoking the aid of 
machinery, labor is largely performed without 
bodily exertion, and it is done so much more 
quickly than formerly, that men and women have 
more leisure for self-culture, or for amusement, as 
the case may be. By means of steam and elec- 
tricity, we have brought to our doors every day 

39 



40 THE MODERN SCHOOL, AND WHAT IT OWES 

not only news of the world's business of every 
sort, but also the products of every climate under 
the sun. Irving tells us in his "Tales of the 
Alhambra," " that Moorish kings employed swift 
couriers to bring every day to their tables fruits 
from distant valleys and ices from the mountain 
tops of Granada." But to-day the thrifty working- 
man can have upon his board fruits and condi- 
ments representing every zone and every climate 
on the earth. 

The clouds of superstition have rolled away, and 
Truth in her many forms stands revealed. A purer 
Christianity, a truer morality, and a more ideal phi- 
lanthropy are active all about us. Such words as 
"wealth," "comfort," and "culture" are often used 
to indicate the potential in the present time if not 
the actual. Certain dangers that beset us, the 
natural accompaniments of the forces I have men- 
tioned, such as the greed of concentrated capital 
and the grinding power of competition, make still 
more complex and startling the tout ensemble of 
the present time, under such conditions. Only the 
strong can prosper; the weak must go to the 
wall. There is much of culture abroad, but only 
those who are sensitive to what is fine and beau- 



TO FROEBEL AND HERB ART 4 1 

tiful can enter into it. Literature has been well 
said to be " the embalmed mind " ; it is surely 
dead and meaningless to those whose souls have 
not been touched. 

The young people who, year by year, pass 
from our schools out into this restless vortex that 
we call active life, should be prepared to enter into 
it hopefully with the chances of success on their 
side. I did not mean to imply that the school is 
wholly, or even mainly, responsible for the conduct 
and achievements of its graduates. Other factors 
and forces are influential: heredity, the home, the 
Church, the social and moral activity of the com- 
munity; all these, in greater or less degree, affect 
the growth of the young, and help to educate. 
The home, particularly, where the child spends so 
much of his early life, and where all his earliest 
lessons are learned, is often, doubtless, the deter- 
mining factor. Nevertheless, the school holds a 
commanding place in the training of the child, and 
the questions, what should the modern school be.-* 
and what should it do .-' become of supreme impor- 
tance. 

Suppose we examine a somewhat ideal type of 
modern manhood and see what it embodies in re- 



42 THE MODERN SCHOOL, AND WHAT IT OWES 

spect to equipment for life. We should all, I 
think, find our ideal endowed with a strong and 
healthy physique, steady nerves, a clear head, and 
a courageous and hopeful disposition. We should 
conceive of him as having gained from wise and 
sympathetic parents and teachers, the power to 
enjoy and appreciate what is beautiful and impres- 
sive in nature. His curiosity has never been re- 
pressed, but always encouraged ; he has not only 
become an admirer of form and color as they are 
revealed in the sky and upon the earth, but he is 
a reverent student of truth and law. Manly sports 
have kept him fresh, cheerful, and strong; his mind 
has been so disciplined by liberal studies in mathe- 
matics, in science, in literature, and the arts, that 
his power to think and reason is only exceeded 
by his love for the great literature. He is not 
ashamed to labor with his hands, knowing that in- 
dustry is man's greatest blessing. He loves pic- 
tures and music, and his soul responds to the 
spiritual lessons they have to teach. He inherited 
truth, reveres sincerity, and his long school train- 
ing has not crushed out these sentiments, but has 
rather ministered to their growth. This ideal cor- 
responds to Ruskin's idea that "education is the 



TO FROEBEL AND HERBART 43 

leading human souls to what is best and making 
what is best out of them." I find, also, that 
Sarah Austin has voiced the same thought 
in saying that "the appropriate and attainable 
ends of a good education are the possession of 
gentle and kindly sympathies, the sense of self- 
respect, and of the respect of one's fellow-men ; 
the free exercise of the intellectual faculties ; the 
gratification of the curiosity that grows upon what 
it feeds on, and that yet finds food forever ; the 
power of regulating the habits and business of life 
so as to extract the greatest possible amount of 
comfort out of small means; the refining, tranquil- 
izing enjoyment of the beautiful in nature and 
art ; and the kindred perception of the beauty and 
nobility of virtue; strengthening consciousness of 
duty fulfilled, and to crown all, ' Peace which pass- 
eth all understanding.' " In these words are found 
what is requisite to a good home or a good school ; 
namely, nutrition, healthy growth, good habits, love 
for the beautiful, and a high moral standard. 

The very idea of a modern school implies a 
spacious, light, airy, attractive, and well-equipped 
schoolhouse. It means that parents and citizens 
have such a lofty conception of the needs and 



44 THE MODERN SCHOOL, AND WHAT IT OWES 

claims of childhood, and the sacredness of their 
responsibility, that they are wilHng to put their 
hands down deep in their pockets, and provide 
those things that are essential to physical well-be- 
ing and comfort. In our best communities we find 
many indications of improved sentiment respecting 
school architecture, but New England has been 
rather backward in this respect, and there are 
many buildings unfit for occupancy by young chil- 
dren. Physical health and comfort as regards fresh 
air, light, and sanitation bear so intimate a relation 
to the intellectual and moral aims of the school 
that too much emphasis cannot be placed upon 
that which constitutes physical environment. 

The next essential to a good school is a good 
teacher, and many there are who may justly be 
classed under this head ; men and women who are 
sincerely devoted to their work, who are conscien- 
tious, sincere, sympathetic, and kind, who reach 
the best that is in their pupils, and by force of 
example and personal influence, are ever leading 
them up to the highest ideals. How soon fathers 
and mothers see reflected in their children the mark 
of the master hand and what a sense of security 
is felt when their children are in the hands of 



TO FROEBEL AND HERBART 45 

such a teacher. I beUeve that if in the training 
of teachers more stress were laid upon the impor- 
tance of personality, and less upon scholarship and 
methods, the tone of our schools would be higher. 
The next thing of which I wish to speak is the 
course of study, by which I mean those means and 
forces which are used by the teacher to nourish 
and exercise the minds of children in the school. 
A great change is being worked out in the cur- 
riculum of all grades of schools. Until within a few 
years, it was very narrow at the bottom, and only 
broadened when pupils were fortunate enough to 
pass through the high school, or the college. The 
three " R's," with a little geography learned from 
the text-book, comprised the major part of the 
school course. History, literature, or science did 
not come into the school life in such a way as to 
affect it vitally. Parents had a very narrow idea 
concerning what they sent their children to school 
for, and teachers were generally in accord with 
them as to this aim. While arithmetic was the 
backbone of the curriculum, a large amount of 
energy was expended in teaching words, and in 
acquiring facts. In many cases no attention was 
given to the question, whether the words taught 



46 THE MODERN SCHOOL, AND WHAT IT OWES 

had intrinsic meaning to the pupils, or whether the 
facts acquired were related to the needs of his 
life, or to each other. There was no lack of drill 
in what have been commonly called the elements 
of formal knowledge, as reading, writing, spelling, 
and computation, and I am not incHned to disparage 
the value of such drill. Men and women who 
received this kind of an education have been won- 
derfully successful in the past, and yet I have 
noticed that they are never inclined to ascribe 
much virtue to their school training. They deem 
it more creditable to be regarded as self-made and 
self-taught. However that may be, it is generally 
understood that the education given in the schools 
of the past has not developed broad interests of 
any sort, or quickened the sensibilities of the young 
along those lines that are now considered so im- 
portant. Many a child who learned to read glibly 
from a reading book passed through the entire 
school course without gaining a love for, or an 
acquaintance with, good literature, and would have 
to be classed as ilHterate, if measured by modern 
standards. In the majority of cases, children who 
studied geography from text-books learned little of 
natural phenomena; they gained no power of ob- 



TO FROEBEL AND HERBART 47 

servation, and had no grasp of imagination which 
is needful to a real knowledge of the earth as a 
planet, and those forces that go to make up what 
we call Nature. 

The most enriching of all studies, the history of 
man and his achievements upon the earth, and 
those ideals of life and conduct that are expressed 
in literature, received almost no attention. The 
principle laid down by Rousseau, that the chief 
thing in early education is nutrition, was little rec- 
ognized or applied. The daily routine in most of 
our schools prior to twenty-five years ago, while it 
may have been vigorous, faithfully applied, and 
fruitful of some good results, was generally not 
interesting, not nutritious, and did not tend to re- 
fine and moralize the child. 

A fermentation has been going on in the educa- 
tional world for several years, and great changes 
have been made both in the curriculum, and in 
the spirit of teaching. One after another, we have 
seen new forces and agencies enUsted. The rela- 
tion of hand-work to brain-growth has been recog- 
nized, and we have seen manual training brought 
into our schools in its various phases of drawing, 
clay modelling, wood-working, needlework, and do- 



48 THE MODERN SCHOOL, AND WHAT IT OWES 

mestic economy. At first there was tremendous 
opposition; some who had been regarded as educa- 
tional leaders predicted the destruction of the school 
system if manual training became universal, but 
the idea has gained rapidly in the esteem and 
faith of thinking people, and it will not be long 
before hand-craft will be as much at home in the 
school as reading or writing. Since the great 
Agassiz set before New England students the ex- 
ample of a scholarly and reverent devotion to the 
study of life as revealed in the animal world, there 
have been sporadic attempts by specially gifted 
teachers to make Nature Study a part of the school 
course, but it is only recently that any systematic 
or fruitful progress has been made in this direction. 
In fact, it is only a few years since our high 
schools and colleges were equipped with labora- 
tories, but now we see the methods at least of 
the laboratory brought into the grammar schools, 
and the course of study recognizes the claims of 
science training in all grades. 

It will perhaps be interesting to inquire at this 
point what has induced these changes. In all such 
discussions as this, it is well to be judicial, and 
somewhat moderate in our claims respecting the 



TO FROEBEL AND HERBART 49 

influence of particular causes. As I indicated at 
the outset, we are living in the midst of a constantly 
improving civilization. The need for a better edu- 
cation to make men fit to live and act under these 
better conditions has been widely felt. The de- 
mands for improvement have not usually come from 
the schools, or from teachers, but from the wise 
and thoughtful observers of human events, who, 
with a better perspective and more philosophic in- 
sight, have seen how barren and inadequate were 
the results ; but if there is any one influence which 
has been more potent than another, I believe it to 
be the work of Friedrich Froebel and the kinder- 
garten, of which he was the founder. Did time 
permit me to make a complete statement of what 
the kindergarten undertakes to do for little chil- 
dren, it would be found to contain the germ of 
every reform that is now being attempted, and I 
probably cannot do better than to briefly point out 
the various elements found there, which are all 
capable of being developed in a greater or less de- 
gree during the entire school life. 

Speaking roughly, what do we find in the true 
kindergarten ? First, a refined, gentle, and sym- 
pathetic teacher. She lives and works with her 



50 THE MODERN SCHOOL, AND WHAT IT OWES 

children. If all our teachers could do that, what 
a change would be the result! 

Second, we find play, which is a divinely appointed 
and instinctive form of child activity. By basing 
many exercises upon play, the child at once be- 
comes perfectly natural, unconscious, and happy. 
I believe the play instinct should be allowed to 
express itself all through the school life. The 
teacher who cannot have some fun with her pupils 
is out of sympathy with childhood, and ought not 
to teach. If play is justly a permanent feature in 
college and university life, there certainly must 
be a place for it during all the years that precede 
that period, and yet we find many schoolrooms 
to-day where the aspect of the teacher is almost 
funereal, and where to smile, much less to laugh 
heartily, would be regarded as an offence against 
good order. Closely related to the games of the 
kindergarten are the songs. These are so con- 
nected with teaching the various forms of truth, 
that they become at once a most inspiring feature 
of the school programme, whether it be in the 
kindergarten, or in any grade above. The song 
whose words and music are refined and elevating, 
and which contains some useful lesson, is a power- 



TO FROEBEL AND HERBART 5 1 

ful means of culture, and creates a pleasant atmos- 
phere in the school. 

Another delightful factor in the kindergarten is 
the story, or morning talk, as it is called. Is there 
any grade in our schools where children will not 
listen with the intensest interest and profit to a 
well-conceived and skilfully told story, or descrip- 
tion ? Story-telling is almost an essential to good 
teaching. The preacher who never illustrates a 
sermon, is generally considered dry. So it is with 
the teacher. In the story we have the germ of 
history and literature, and in our best schools to-day 
there is no break from the kindergarten to the 
high school in either of these lines. Materials are 
abundant, and there is the greatest opportunity for 
moral teaching, and for furnishing the mind with 
that apperceptive material so needful when pupils 
take up the more serious and philosophic study of 
men and institutions ; yet the traditions concerning 
the school routine are so strong, and the normal 
schools have done so little in this direction, that 
any school superintendent regards it as a note- 
worthy achievement that he has persuaded a teacher 
to tell a story. 

I have spoken of science studies, and the kinder- 



52 THE MODERN SCHOOL, AND WHAT IT OWES 

garten has done more for this department than any 
other agency. We also learn from Froebel how 
mathematics may best be taught. Principles which 
when presented abstractly are dry and uninterest- 
ing, become attractive and easy when made realistic 
and practical. We find that in half the time that 
was formerly devoted to arithmetic, by using 
concrete methods, we can now secure better 
results. 

The occupations of the kindergarten are the true 
introduction to manual training, and some part of 
the school time in every grade should be given to 
such hand-work as will call out the perceptive and 
executive powers of the child. 

One great end of school training is facility in the 
use of the mother tongue. The scheme of enrich- 
ment which I have described is the most direct 
means of giving that facility. The force of ideas is 
the one force that will impel pupils to fulness and 
richness of expression. As their minds become 
furnished with a knowledge of the beauties and 
wonders of nature, as they are inspired by the 
noble deeds of men and women, and as they are 
filled with the artistic delineations of literature, it 
becomes easy for young people to speak and write 



TO FROEBEL AND HERBART 53 

and, through much practice, they may reach a high 
standard of accuracy and perfection of style. 

I have emphasized the credit due the kinder- 
garten for initiating this broad and harmonious 
scheme, which I have endeavored hastily to out- 
line; but even in communities where it has not 
yet been possible to establish kindergartens, there 
is, I am happy to say, a movement toward this 
better form of enrichment. All that is needed is 
the belief on the part of teachers and parents that 
something better can be done than has been done, 
and courage to move out boldly into these new 
fields. The introduction of new subjects often 
causes a certain confusion, and teachers have to 
be patient under the criticism generally made, that 
too much is being attempted. They only need to 
understand that the enrichment of the course of 
study needs to be accompanied by such concen- 
tration and correlation of studies as will relieve the 
pressure, and tend to promote unity and economy. 

The German philosopher, Herbart, who lived 
from 1776 to 1 84 1, developed a set of educational 
ideas that is destined to affect the practice of every 
teacher. In the first place, he made moral char- 
acter building the central aim. This was no sen- 



54 THE MODERN SCHOOL, AND WHAT IT OWES 

timental idea, but the result of careful weighing of 
all minor ends involved in teaching and training. 
He believed that moral excellence was closely re- 
lated to all other parts of culture, and insisted that 
only in the high ideal of moral perfection do we 
find that unity of aim so much to be desired. The 
development of interest, the kindling of feeling, the 
training of the will, the affections of the home, 
the sports of the playground, books, companion- 
ships, and activities of all sorts, are to be coordi- 
nated to this common aim, viz. a character that 
is pure and strong. 

Secondly, we are indebted to Herbart for the 
doctrine that many-sided, permanent interest is at 
once the end and the means of education. The 
interest occasioned by prizes and rewards is not 
, equal in value to the direct interest in a study 
awakened by the skilful teacher. Interest must 
be many sided, but it must not be scattering or 
frivolous. Interest leads us on to master the diffi- 
culties of life, and to achieve its victories. When 
it is absent, labor becomes a drudgery, the man 
becomes a slave. A school that does not have 
interest written upon the faces of its pupils is not 
a modern school in the true sense. There may be 



TO FROEBEL AND HERBART 55 

order and obedience, but the life-giving principle 
is wanting; the school is dead. President Eliot 
has said many times that "it is the ineffable dul- 
ness of the teaching in many schools that wearies 
the pupils and unfits them to receive instruction." 
But some one may say, ought not a child to grap- 
ple with hard tasks, and apply himself to duty, 
even though it be disagreeable.? Most certainly 
he ought, but strength of will is the determining 
factor in such cases, and will acquires its greatest ' 
power from interest; it gains momentum, and even 
difficult tasks become delightful. " Blessed is he 
that overcometh," applies only to those whose force 
of will carries them on to victory. It is not in 
the formal studies like reading, writing, spelling, 
etc., that the deepest interests are found, but in 
the thought or culture studies, like history, geog- 
raphy, and the natural sciences. This justifies the 
enrichment of the course of study, and is the only 
sure preventive of narrowness ; besides, there is the 
advantage of selection, which occurs when the child 
is brought into touch with many objects of interest. 
Dr. J. G. Fitch, one of the leading educators of 
England, when in this country a few years ago, 
spoke these memorable words : — 



56 THE MODERN SCHOOL, AND WHAT IT OWES 

"We are safe at least in deducing this one con- 
clusion from the teaching of natural history, that 
the human character, like other organisms, thrives 
best when exposed to variable conditions, for then 
only has it a chance of selecting those which are 
most favorable to the development of what is best 
and fittest for itself." 

We may not give our children an exhaustive 
knowledge of music, art, history, or the sciences, 
but we may send them forth into life with an eager 
desire to learn more, and a broad outlook toward 
men and things. " Learning," says Herbart, *' shall 
pass away, but the interest shall remain through- 
out the whole life." 

Another element in the general idea of concen- 
tration is expressed in the rather new term "ap- 
perception." We all know that the mind sees and 
acquires by means of what it has already acquired ; 
the old ideas seize the new, and assimilate them. 
The more clear and definite are the old impres- 
sions, the more quickly and easily will the new, 
related facts be apperceived. Basing his theory 
upon the value of interest and apperception, Her- 
bart regarded concentration, or correlation of studies, 
as a sort of superstructure. Every study is related 



TO FROEBEL AND HERBART 57 

to other studies ; every truth in nature or history 
has a variety of associations, which, if followed, 
shed light, and make that truth stand forth more 
clearly. Applying this principle, we should make 
every important truth we teach a centre of interest 
about which to group as many related ideas as pos- 
sible. Take, for example, what is contained in the 
word "climate," and think of the variety of forces 
which enter into it; there are latitude, the position 
of the sun, the elevation above the sea, the action 
of wmd in connection with evaporation and con- 
densation, snow, relation to the seaboard, radiation, 
etc., from which it appears that we cannot touch 
the simple fact of climate, without drawing upon 
mathematics, physics, and astronomy. To trace the 
effect of climate in any part of the world carries 
us into the fields of geography, ethnology, sociology, 
and political economy. 

Back of every political, social, and industrial 
fact lies a chain of political causes, operating within 
a given area, producing a given result ; thus topog- 
raphy becomes, as it were, a connecting link be- 
tween the study of nature and the study of man. 
It is clear that we do not want a forced or artificial 
coordination of ideas, but one that aids the mind 



58 THE MODERN SCHOOL 

in discovering natural laws and relations, whereso- 
ever they may be found. 

A full statement of all that is implied in the 
Herbartian theory would make it appear that 
education, like religion, has its gospel, to experience 
which requires both faith and works. The main 
propositions of this theory seem to me true and 
inspiring. They ought to bring hope and joy to 
every teacher and parent ; they point to the high- 
est ideal that human effort can attain, and show 
us the road that leads thither. 



THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 



THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 

The present lecture has to do with the attitude 
of the teacher toward the individual child and the 
method of treatment. We shall not, therefore, look 
at the school so much in its institutional capacity, 
but shall turn our attention to individual children, 
and try to answer the question, "What are some 
of the best things which the teacher may do for 
the child in helping him to that self-freedom and 
self-revelation which are the great ends of instruc- 
tion?" We often read about the education of a 
prince or a princess, and at first it seems a singu- 
lar thing that tutors of the highest culture and 
learning are secured to devote themselves exclu- 
sively to the oversight of the growing life of the 
future sovereign, but it has never yet been sug- 
gested that the most experienced and competent 
teacher does not find ample field for the exercise 
of his skill in the training of a single youth. His 
knowledge of that youth becomes intensive. It is 

6i 



62 THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 

thought to be necessary for him to know intimately 
the child's aptitudes and weaknesses. He becomes 
familiar with all his shifting moods. He must dis- 
cover infinite devices for overcoming in the child's 
nature all that is unpromising and bad, and of 
building up and strengthening all those tendencies 
that make for nobility of character. Thus it has 
happened that the elder sons of kings and noble- 
men who are to inherit the wealth and position of 
their fathers, though not highly endowed, and pre- 
senting in youth many unfavorable traits, have been 
so carefully and skilfully cultured and schooled, so 
fortified for their position in life, that they have 
lived to surprise their friends and acquaintances by 
careers of success. Many a mother who has one 
child finds herself confronted by problems which 
seem almost beyond human power to solve, and it 
is often with great relief and joy that she commits 
the child to the school, where he meets an intelli- 
gence and a guidance superior to that which she pos- 
sesses. But the difference between the education of 
the prince, who alone commands the labor of one 
or more experienced instructors, and that condition 
of things which exists where one teacher has forty 
or fifty individual natures to study and to train, is 



THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 63 

indeed great. And yet I have the presumption to 
say that the first requisite to a successful school 
is that the teacher know her pupils, that she know- 
each individual as such. How many times this has 
been said. And yet, how many teachers have a 
blurred vision which enables them to see the school 
only in the mass, and that lack of perception which 
recognizes the infinite variety of temperament and 
disposition there represented. Many persons who 
enter the profession of teaching are so filled with 
the subjects to be taught and the methods to be 
pursued, and their training has been so lacking in 
any near approach to child life, that they are abso- 
lutely unfitted to meet this requirement. They are 
blind guides. They do not come near to any of 
their pupils because they do not get acquainted 
with them ; and the pupils, in turn, look upon the 
teacher as a stranger if not as an intruder. It is 
not necessary to know everything about all the chil- 
dren at once. If the teacher is able to read one 
difficult case and deal with it tactfully and skilfully, 
the fact is recognized by all. The pupils know that 
as fast as practical the teacher will understand them 
all, and will rate them for what they are, and there 
springs up an attitude of expectancy and interest, a 



64 THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 

faith in the teacher's sagacity, and a readiness to 
meet him halfway. Some teachers seem to have 
been born bhnd if not deaf. I remember upon one 
occasion in a high school some members of a Ger- 
man class put an alarm clock under the teacher's 
platform for three successive days, so set that it 
would go off during the recitation. The instructor 
not only was unable to ascertain who had com- 
mitted this base act, which was not so strange, but 
could not detect the location of the clock, and it was 
said that he usually looked toward the ceiling when 
the alarm sounded. This is simply an illustration 
of the obtuseness of many people in dealing with 
children, and if there is any one thing in which 
some normal schools have been dreadfully lacking 
it has been in not giving to its pupil teachers ex- 
perience in studying children. I am not going to 
enter into the subject of child-study here ; and 
technical child-study, as it is generally understood, 
has very little to do with the kind of insight which 
I want to emphasize in this connection. 

If the teacher has that attitude which leads him 
to seek an intimate acquaintance with each of his 
pupils, becoming somewhat acquainted with his home 
life and the conditions under which he lives out of 



THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 65 

school, as well as his personal temperament and 
characteristics, he will acquire the power of discrimi- 
nation. He will come to differentiate his pupils, and 
to recognize the vast differences which distinguish 
the one from the other. The more close is his 
analysis, the more inclined he is to treat each indi- 
vidual as standing apart from all the rest, claiming 
special and separate attention. He will even look 
for the marks of heredity, and here he will find a 
large field for serious thought and reflection. Can 
any one doubt the importance of this factor as deter- 
mining the temperament and propensities of chil- 
dren ? Who of us does not discern in himself traits, 
well defined and persistent, that come from father 
or mother.? Who does not see in his neighbors 
this same tendency to repeat the characteristics of 
parents and grandparents .-• The law of heredity 
is written in indelible characters on the escutcheon 
of nearly every family. In a large sense, and taking 
into account the climate and other physical condi- 
tions, heredity stamps itself upon the life of peoples. 
In a cosmopolitan community like ours, it tends 
to give still greater variety to our school population 
and requires a still larger discrimination to meet dif- 
ferent temperaments and dispositions on their own 



66 THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 

level. No teacher will deal justly with those com- 
mitted to his care unless he remembers that any 
organism tends to build itself up from the germ after 
an ancestral pattern, and that the modifiability of 
that type is brought about only under special nur- 
ture and environment applied at an early age. Ribot 
tells us that in China when a man has committed a 
capital crime an inquiry is made first into his physi- 
cal condition, his temperament, and his prior acts. 
Nor does the investigation stop at the individual. It 
is concerned with the most inconsiderate antecedents 
of the members of his family, and is even carried 
back to his ancestry. This would seem to do full 
justice to heredity, but in the case of high treason, 
or when a prince has been assassinated, these same 
people, carrying this principle too far, and estab- 
lishing an unfair solidarity between father and chil- 
dren, prescribe that the culprit shall be cut into ten 
thousand pieces, and that his sons and grandsons 
shall be put to death. The Japanese law formerly, 
it is said, included in the punishment the parents of 
the culprit. This is but a single instance of a vast 
number that might be cited to show how the world 
has recognized the tremendous force of heredity. 
Under the light of the Christian dispensation there 



THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 6/ 

is no such visitation upon fathers and children in 
case of crime. But the educator, whose work is dis- 
tinctly in the line of correcting and reestablishing 
defective human nature, ought to feel an increasing 
interest in trying to find out what hereditary taints 
rest upon his pupils, and what treatment should be 
given them. To treat harshly a child who bears the 
marks of a low and ignorant or even criminal ances- 
try would partake of the Chinese method of admin- 
istering justice to which I have alluded. The greater 
the misfortune of the child, the more heavily he is 
handicapped by the degradation and sins of the 
family to which he belongs, the greater his claim 
to that sympathetic discrimination and masterly 
treatment, and that redemptive love which alone can 
save him and lift him above the conditions which 
threaten to destroy his life. 

Another factor which a discriminating teacher will 
recognize in a child, and which will appeal to 
his sympathy and considerateness, is the immediate 
effect of the home and the environment of his daily 
life. Under what diverse conditions have the pupils 
in some of our schoolrooms been reared ! One 
comes from a wretched hovel where the home life 
is disorderly and squalid through intemperance, 



68 THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 

where want and discomfort oppress him whenever 
he is at home. Another is the child of kind and 
cultured parents, whose home provides for him the 
most solicitous care and sends him to school happy, 
yes, radiant, with the sense of parental love. It 
would be rank injustice to assume that the poorly 
fed, ill-clothed, and ill-treated child can reach a moral 
and intellectual standard in the school equal to that 
of the one whose condition I have just described. 
We should go to the home of pupils, not for their 
good, but for our own. 

I do not intend to imply that the difficult problems 
that confront the teacher are all found in children 
who come from poor homes, or who have unfortunate 
ancestry. The only child in a family, whether he 
come from a poor home or a good one, constitutes 
almost a distinct type and presents many trying 
questions to the sympathetic teacher. Mr. Boham- 
mon, in an article in the Pedagogical Seminary of 
April, 1898, treats somewhat exhaustively the pecul- 
iar characteristics of the only child, and cites many 
individual cases to show what a degree of similarity 
runs through them. I quote from his summary of 
the peculiarities of these children only a few items : 
" Mental and physical defects of a grave character 



THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 69 

are more common than among other children, — 
Nervous disorders seem to be unusually frequent in 
the families from whence they come, — These chil- 
dren appear to enter school later and are less regular 
in their attendance than other children, — Their suc- 
cess in school work is below the average, — They do 
not join in games as readily as other children of cor- 
responding ages, — Many of them have imaginary 
companions, — Many of them do not have as good 
command of themselves socially as does the average 
child, — Precocity seems to be the most prominent 
trait, — Selfishness is the most frequently named of 
the worst traits, while affection is most often named 
among the best." 

As a rule the home treatment has been unthink- 
ing indulgence, which makes the child expect con- 
cessions on all sides and an unwillingness on his 
own part to make them to others. It is suggested 
that teachers should try to influence the parents of 
such children to be less indulgent, to provide com- 
panionship with children of equal age, and to show 
less anxiety and misguided affection toward the 
children, leaving them a larger freedom of action. 

There are other types which the discriminating 
teacher will soon recognize. There is the child of 



70 THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 

delicate organism and nervous temperament who is 
especially sensitive to the bad air and the weary 
hours of the school. There is the dull pupil who 
may come from a perfectly normal home and be 
well endowed, but who is slow of development. 
All these, and many others, deserve a separate 
diagnosis and a special method of approach. The 
true teacher will not be satisfied with a generalized, 
indefinite ideal toward which the children may be 
brought en masse, but he will study every indi- 
vidual pupil as thoroughly as he does the lessons 
to be taught. He will not be satisfied simply with 
a quiet school, an orderly school, or even a studious 
school, but he will want to know that every single 
pupil, according to his circumstances and his ability, 
is growing in all those qualities that make child- 
hood happy, earnest, and hopeful. He will want to 
know that each child carries to his home a sense 
of pleasure in what the school has done for him, 
and brings back, where the circumstances permit, 
a consciousness of appreciation on the part of par- 
ents, so that home and school are brought into 
harmony and the child has a double incentive for 
doing his best. 

Of equal importance with this attitude of dis- 



THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 7I 

crimination and differentiation which the discerning 
teacher will assume toward her pupils, is the atti- 
tude of faith that each and every child may be 
quickened and saved, as it were, from all the evil 
influences of heredity, crime, and ignorance, and 
even of short-sightedness and over-indulgence which 
characterize so many homes. To have faith in the 
future of uninteresting and unpromising children, 
to be able to put forth a touch of sympathy and 
personal interest which will kindle like sentiments 
in return, is the mark of a fine spirit. How little 
one can accomplish for the life of another unless 
he has faith in the possibilities of that life ! If 
his mission of service be performed in a perfunc- 
tory manner, if he permits himself to reveal dislike 
or prejudice or lack of recognition of some good in 
that person, how helpless he is as far as arousing 
the best efforts and kindling high ambition ! Noth- 
ing is more unfortunate in a large school than to 
have adverse opinions and prejudices concerning 
any pupil who is in any way unfortunate in his 
temperament, or who has been disagreeable in 
his conduct, handed down as a legacy so that they 
follow him as a sort of Nemesis through his school 
life, chilling such good impulses as he may have, 



72 THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 

and thwarting his endeavors to reestablish himself 
in the school. Thus it comes to pass that many 
a youth, who, by hook and by crook, conquers 
himself, and attains to a position of honor and 
trust in the world, does it, not by reason of the 
encouragement he receives in the school, but rather 
in spite of it. Sad, indeed, is it to hear a person 
say of any teacher that he got from him no en- 
couragement, no expression of confidence, no praise 
for good endeavors. 

The teacher's faith in the possibility of bring- 
ing out something fine and noble where the out- 
look is discouraging often reaches beyond the 
school to the home and takes into partnership 
the parents, and by appealing to their parental 
pride and interest secures a more watchful care 
and a more active oversight of the child's life. 
Here, again, teachers make the dreadful mistake 
of retailing to parents the faults of their children 
when they are too conscious of them already, in- 
stead of searching for their virtues and giving 
them new hope and fresh stimulus for cooperation ; 
for many children need the united efforts of parents 
and teachers to hold them and to keep them advanc- 
ing toward the true and the good. One of the 



THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 73 

most refreshing and delightsome experiences of 
the supervisor of schools is to enter a schoolroom 
where the teacher has not a single unpleasant 
thing to say of any pupil. What a tonic it is to 
the whole school and to the individual to hear the 
teacher express pride, confidence, and satisfaction 
in his pupils ! On the other hand, how soon a 
teacher loses caste with his pupils if he ever has 
some unfavorable criticism to make either upon 
their conduct or their efforts. 

Enough has been said about the attitude of the 
teacher toward the child, and we may now con- 
sider a few of those positive obligations of the 
school which the teacher is called upon to fulfil. 
Holding to the idea so universally accepted that 
character is the highest aim in individual training, 
it becomes true that the forming of good habits is 
perhaps the most practical, if not the most im- 
portant end. Modern pedagogy recognizes the fact 
that gradually the life of the individual becomes 
mechanized so that three-fourths, and more, of 
the things we do are done automatically. We 
become creatures of habit through repeated re- 
actions of the nervous organism. Innumerable 
paths of nervous discharge become permanently 



74 THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 

fixed, and we go on like a clock that has been 
wound up. Says Professor James : " The more of 
the details of our daily life that we can hand over 
to the effortless custody of automatism, the more 
our mental powers of mind will be set free for 
their proper work." The fact that many children 
have formed bad habits of conduct and feeling 
before they enter school makes the teacher's work 
particularly difficult. Nevertheless, he is still work- 
ing upon plastic material. The child of four or 
five or six years old may be led to initiate a large 
number of activities, which, if persisted in, will make 
it easier for him to be an efficient, self -controlled, 
and useful member of society. The applications 
of this principle are almost infinite in number and 
extent, and in the whole realm of action, of thought, 
and of feeling there is very little that is not effected 
by a tendency to habitude. 

Then there are those special habits so important 
in the personal life which relate to such things 
as cleanliness, punctuality, neatness, perseverance, 
self-control, obedience, politeness, attention, dili- 
gence, and unselfishness, and when there has been 
established in the constitution of any young person 
a chain of habits reaching up to that highest of 



THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 75 

all phases of character, unselfishness, he may be 
said to be socialized, for he has not only conquered 
himself and brought himself under subjection, but 
he is ready to reach out and be solicitous for the 
welfare of others and to make his contribution to the 
welfare of his fellow beings. This is the climax 
of all moral training, and a community in which 
the members are unselfish is ideal. 

Think for a moment of a school, or a system of 
schools, whose teachers are dominated by such an 
intelligent conception of their opportunities that 
they are united and strenuously earnest in laying 
the foundations of character in good habits, and 
finally, through the unselfishness of individuals, 
reaching that social condition which marks the 
ideal community. 

Good habits are an economic factor in the pur- 
suit of every school exercise. Things done re- 
peatedly in the best and most direct way lead to 
promptness, accuracy, and efficiency, and give the 
youth power for good in any career to which he 
may devote himself. The modern school with its 
improved curriculum affords increasing opportunities 
for the increase of personal power through a multi- 
tude of good and useful habits. 



^6 THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 

Another positive obligation of the school toward 
the child, and one complementary to that which 
I have just mentioned, is the need of generous 
giving. We not only have to train the growing 
organism in the way of good habits, but we have 
to enrich the life, we have to furnish nutrition and 
inspiration, so that the highest possibilities are ful- 
filled, the vision is enlarged, true ideals are estab- 
lished, and the pupil is full of zeal and interest 
and expectation, as well as with delight and satis- 
faction. " Freely ye have received, freely give," 
is the Divine injunction. As teachers are becoming 
better educated, more cultured, and have larger 
conceptions of the meaning of education, so we 
may expect to see them carrying to their pupils 
larger gifts, taking the school, as it were, by storm 
through the inspirations of knowledge. I have 
known teachers in the past who read the best 
books and even had opportunities of extensive 
travel, and yet who seemed to have little for their 
children that was bright and uplifting. They 
allowed the school life to become a routine. We 
cannot to-day class such a school in the first rank, 
no matter how perfect may be its discipline and 
how faithful its performance of ordinary duties. 



THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 77 

On the other hand, I have met teachers here and 
there who feel that they cannot find anything in 
the realm of literature, art, or nature that is quite 
good enough for their pupils. They are ever 
gathering new stores and bringing them with a 
sort of consecration to the service of the school. 
Such teachers are never discouraged, are seldom sick, 
and usually have happy and devoted pupils. Such 
a school reacts strongly upon the home. The 
momentum which pupils acquire in their investiga- 
tions hither and thither is felt by the parents, and 
they are moved to become students with them, 
and we have the ideal picture of fathers, mothers, 
and children studying together. The teacher of 
high ideals who is ready to give generously in 
working out those ideals need have little concern 
about the atmosphere of his school. I might almost 
say he need not be anxious about the atmosphere 
of the home, for fathers and mothers rejoice each 
day as the child brings home evidences of his 
good work. I am sure you will all agree with me 
that neither home nor school is of the highest 
order unless the child is eager, alert, cheerful, yes, 
triumphant. If he conquers his lessons, he is at 
the same time conquering himself. He is expert- 



78 THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 

encing a self-revelation of his ability to overcome, 
and he greatly rejoices in it. 

This leads me to speak of one more feature of 
the school which can hardly be separated from 
those which I have already presented, and that is 
"discipline." •'. It goes without saying that where 
the discipline is conducted by the exercise of force, 
it is difficult, if not impossible, to secure those finer 
results to which I have alluded. No doubt there 
are excellent schools where force is occasionally 
used, and doubtless convenience and the practical 
ends of immediate success seem to demand that 
force be applied; but I am sure, considering the 
school as a whole, that the use of physical force 
occasions a loss in that fine feeling of cooperation 
between pupil and teacher which we look for in 
the best school. We have often heard adults 
speak with complacency of the punishments they 
received in school and even say they deserved 
them. Have we ever, in such instances, heard ex- 
pressions of the profoundest love and respect for 
the teachers who inflicted those penalties .'' Under 
which teacher would you prefer to have a child in 
whom you are interested placed, — one who has an 
orderly school by reason of the exercise of force. 



THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 79 

or by the reminder given his pupils that force may 
be used if necessary, or the teacher who takes his 
pupils into his confidence, and by manner, if not 
by word, disclaims all intention of treating them 
otherwise than as friends and helpers ? I have in 
mind at this moment a young woman of refined 
and gentle nature, yet of strong and noble char- 
acter, who was engaged to take charge of a diffi- 
cult school, of which she knew nothing until the 
morning when she came to begin her work. She 
had for several years been in a private school, 
dealing with a few children from refined homes. 
Here she had to deal with boys and girls some of 
whom had hitherto responded to a regime of force. 
After a few days the superintendent visited her 
room and saw the battle going on. The pupils, 
some of whom had not yet risen to the situation, 
had lapsed at times in their responsiveness and 
courtesy. The teacher stood before them, calm, 
self-controlled, using gentle tones, apparently blind 
to their conduct, which had sometimes been most 
trying. The superintendent had sense enough to 
speak a congratulatory word to the class, and to 
show the teacher that he deeply appreciated her 
determination to conquer by moral means. It is 



80 THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 

pleasant to record the fact that in a few weeks 
there was unconditional surrender. The victory was 
won, and the experience of three years in that 
school has not only been a constant recompense 
to that teacher, but it has been an object lesson 
to others. In thinking of this particular instance, 
I can recall nothing more appropriate to express 
its meaning than the ancient promise, " He that 
goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, 
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing 
his sheaves with him." 

Vlf discipline is not to be accomplished through 
force, what is the alternative ? I remark, in the 
first place, that the great means of discipline is 
through the studies. I might have said, and you 
probably expected me to say, by moral suasion and 
through the influence of the teacher, and this last 
is a powerful element ; but the teacher may ex- 
press himself in a powerful manner through all 
the school exercises. Each and every study con- 
tributes something to this end. Mathematics calls 
for truth, accuracy, patience, and persistence. Lit- 
erature elevates the thoughts and feelings to what 
is chaste, true, and beautiful. History calls for the 
emulation of noble examples of men and women 



THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 8 1 

struggling for the right. Manual Training is a 
helpful factor in the discipline of the school, as 
it directs the energy of nerve and muscle into use- 
ful channels and arouses energies that would other- 
wise be dormant or perhaps break out in unseemly 
conduct. In the school, as elsewhere, good, honest 
toil is a remedy for many of those ills that come 
where idleness and looseness prevail. ; Every boy 
who does a piece of work thoroughly and com- 
pletely is a different boy from what he was before. 
In the secondary schools, more than in the grades 
below, it is not desirable that masters and teachers 
should undertake to furnish will power for those 
who are old enough to exercise such power for 
themselves. It requires fine art to find that exact 
border-hne between possible freedom on the one 
hand and reserve and self-control on the other. 
The master of force and insight will rather err on 
the side of freedom, and permit occasional lapses 
on the part of his pupils from correct conduct than 
to act the part of the drum major or the martinet. 
The best preparation for citizenship is to live and 
practise in the school those principles that char- 
acterize the good citizen. X 

Did time permit, I would like to refer to some 



82 THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 

recent discoveries which biology and anthropology 
have contributed to our pedagogy. A. Caswell 
Ellis remarks, in a recent article upon the studies 
of Romaines, on the subject of " Instinct." He 
grades the various instincts of the highest animals 
as high as twenty-three on a scale on which man 
reaches only fifty, thus showing what a broad 
heredity we have before considering the human 
race. "The development of these instincts and 
of their human, later evolved offshoots, offers cer- 
tainly the natural and easy path of education, and 
should be the first work of the teacher. We should 
certainly go into copartnership with nature when 
it can furnish half of our needed material already 
practically prepared. As the engineer, in laying 
his roads through the mountains, always seeks 
out and follows the course of the streams, taking 
advantage of the well-worn paths made by the 
flow of nature's forces along these lines for untold 
years, so must the educator seek out and utilize 
those neural and psychic paths along which there 
is an easier progress because of the heredity im- 
print left by the passage of the forces of life this 
way through countless generations." 

Of equal interest is that view so well substan- 



THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 83 

tiated which recognizes a certain rhythmic character 
of interest, and arrest of interest, which accom- 
panies some of the nascent periods of child life. 
Instead of being surprised and annoyed when 
pupils at times appear incapable of grasping a 
subject, we need to look beneath the surface and 
to know that this apparent arrest is in obedience 
to a natural law. Thus, much of our bungHng 
misunderstanding of children and inhumane dis- 
cipline will be avoided. 

The subject of fatigue is worthy of our study, 
and we should try still harder than we have been 
doing to arrange the daily programme so that 
relief comes through change of work, and the 
pupils are kept as fresh and unwearied as possible. 

While little has been said about child-study, I 
have certainly implied that we need a larger knowl- 
edge of the being who is in our care. There are 
two attitudes which a teacher should assume to 
his children in the school. First, that of discrimi- 
nating considerateness, and second, that of faith 
and confidence. The impress of heredity and 
home culture cannot be ignored, and a recognition 
of inherited tendencies and home surroundings 
will justly affect our procedure. The school has 



84 THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 

much to do with the establishment of character 
through good habits, and in the prosecution of 
this work nothing is to be counted as small or 
unimportant. The modern teacher has every incen- 
tive to become broad and rich in his culture and 
to use the same freely for the uplifting of his 
pupils. DiscipHne is to have no prominence in 
the school, except as the teacher brings to bear 
the energizing force of interesting and fruitful 
work in which he is recognized, not as a driver, 
but as a leader and a friend. /The ideals which 
we all desire to attain bid us get rid of many of 
the prepossessions due to our own education and 
the conventional ideas so prevalent in a com- 
munity, to lay hold upon all the discoveries of 
science so that we may be worthy members of a 
profession which ought to rank among the highest 
in the world. It is with no desire to be sentimental 
that I close with a principle that has in it the ele- 
ments of coordination and of universality. This 
principle was well expressed by Henry Drummond 
when he said, " Love is the greatest thing in the 
world." It is indeed the golden thread that joins 
together all those saving forces which operate in 
the home, in the school, and in the community to 



THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 85 

make the young better, truer, and happier. I am 
ready to predict that the education of the future is 
likely to be more highly charged with this quality 
than has been the case in the past. Christianity 
calls for it. The world needs it, and I trust that 
teachers everywhere are coming to see in it the 
very essence of their mission. 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF 
STUDY 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF 
STUDY 

The true idea of a course of study, its purpose, 
its scope, and its general content are the topics 
which are now to engage our attention. 

The term, "course of study," suggests to our 
mind a formulated statement of work to be done 
in the school. It may be very meagre, so that 
the directions for the whole school course cover 
only a few pages, or it may be so extended and 
refined as to fill an octavo volume. There was a 
growing tendency until recent years, in preparing 
a course of study, to give very explicit directions 
not only as to the subjects to be taught, but con- 
cerning the way in which they were to be treated ; 
and not only this, but examinations were held at 
stated intervals to test the fidelity of the teacher 
in following the course as well as the thorough- 
ness with which the pupils had acquired the pre- 
scribed knowledge. Thus, the schools in a given 

89 



90 PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

community were raised or reduced to a sort of 
dead-level mediocrity. A teacher of broad attain- 
ments and deep interests, however enthusiastic he 
might be and however ready to lift his pupils to a 
higher plane of original investigation, had little 
opportunity of doing so. Whenever an attempt 
was made in this direction it was found that his 
classes fell behind in the examinations. Such has 
been the condition of the so-called best graded 
schools in the country until recently. 

It is not well to condemn those steps in our 
progress which were, perhaps, necessary before 
we could reach the higher planes of understand- 
ing and adaptation upon which we now stand, but 
it is quite desirable to see that a detailed course 
of study, paying attention principally to the 
amount to be accomplished, and depriving teachers 
of the free play of their best energies and attain- 
ments, is something to be avoided in our modern 
education. The teacher, of all persons, should not 
only have a wide outlook but should be encour- 
aged in his own efforts at self-culture. He should 
keep ever in mind the spiritual aims of education, 
should be sensitive to the particular needs of indi- 
vidual children, should be as far removed as pos- 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 91 

sible from the ranks of the mechanic who has to 
work to a line, and should have the free hand of 
the artist into whose soul is born visions of large 
and beautiful things which he desires to realize in 
the plastic material which is given into his hand. 

The school is an extension of the home. It is 
organized under the requirements of modern soci- 
ety in order that every child, irrespective of cir- 
cumstances under which he is born and reared, 
may have the advantages of a discriminating and 
sympathetic culture which shall enable him to real- 
ize in himself all that his Maker intended. To 
refer again to the illustration of a picture, it is not 
the size of the canvas or the amount of paint that 
is used that determines the quality of the master- 
piece. It is rather the conception which the 
artist has in his mind and the facility and freedom 
with which he can execute his ideal. Thus, in a 
school where no two children are exactly alike 
and where there is the greatest diversity of physi- 
cal and intellectual stamina, the teacher must be 
quite unhampered, and the results he seeks must 
not be quantitative but qualitative. The good 
school will permit its pupils to present the same 
individuality that is seen in a forest of trees or in 



92 PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

a garden of roses. Each will have a beauty and 
promise of its own, and it is the greatest folly to 
use axe or pruning-knife in the attempt to make 
them all exactly alike. In the parable of the 
talents it does not appear that the person with 
one talent was blamed because he had only the 
one talent, but because, for some reason or other, 
he did not make the right use of it. The schools 
should be as considerate of the pupil with one tal- 
ent as of those of ten talents. 

I venture, then, to say in the first place, that a 
course of study should concern itself less with 
the particular topics to be pursued, and the amount 
that is to be accomplished, than with the general 
aims which are to animate the school and the 
results that are to be sought in the pupils them- 
selves in respect to individual power, social feel- 
ing, moral stamina, and noble character. In the 
conventional course of study there are, of course, 
two great fields of research, that of Nature and 
that of Man, that of Things and of People. No 
sane person now thinks of treating writing, read- 
ing, spelling, and composition as materials of 
thought. They are incidents in the school life, 
and the course of study need have little, if any- 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 93 

thing, to say about them. Mathematics, also, 
gives modes of judgment and not culture material. 
Here, perhaps, a quantitative requirement is less 
objectionable than in the iield of culture studies. 

Secondly, the true course of study is the stream 
of activity that flows on in any school from day to 
day and from week to week. It is the quality of 
life that flourishes there. It is so much a matter 
of personality, of sympathy, of vigorous enthusiasm, 
that a prescription is as much to be dreaded as 
are the pills of an old-fashioned doctor. Teachers 
need to see the materials they are using as objects 
of thought in good perspective ; hence, the assign- 
ment of topics should be in the large. Large 
masses of truth are more easily attacked than 
small detached particles. In fact, a close analysis 
of culture material for a course of study is danger- 
ous. There is a place, of course, for analysis, but 
what is especially desired in building up a body 
of knowledge is synthesis. This is accomplished 
by directing the attention of teachers to a few of 
the great central truths which may form the cen- 
tre of a number of minor and related facts. This 
takes advantage of the capacity of the mind to 
see things in their relation, to coordinate and to 



94 PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

discover the laws of cause and effect. In fact, 
the chief purpose of study over and above training 
in language is the power to discover the relation 
which one thing bears to another and to connect 
knowledge acquired with the experience of the 
child, thus giving a social content to every school 
subject. The modern course of study should be a 
suggestive outline indicating central themes and 
points of direction with suggestions as to the kind 
of composition work that may be employed, the 
sources of illustration and the means of making 
the subject graphic and real. 

In a former chapter the need of cultivating 
the social element in the school was emphasized. 
It must be apparent to any one that the most un- 
social school is the one where quantitative stan- 
dards are ever intruding and interfering with the 
free play of personality and individuality. Thus, 
it appears, and I trust it will appear still more 
clearly as we advance in this discussion, that elab- 
orate statements of quantitative work are out of 
harmony with the modern aims of the school. 
Uniformity is not to be sought but rather to be 
avoided. As the mountains which rear their sum- 
mits above the surrounding country in our New 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 95 

England landscape are sources of strength and 
inspiration to all who behold them, so those teach- 
ers who, through superior endowments and larger 
spiritual insight, stand far above their associates 
in the richness and variety of their execution are 
ever pointing the way to better things in the 
school life which their weaker associates are able 
to follow. 

It must be clear, therefore, from what has al- 
ready been said, that the present purpose is not 
to show how a written or printed course of study 
should be arranged or what it should contain, but 
rather to indicate some of the broader considera- 
tions which should determine the character of the 
school life and the quality of the school exercises 
as suggested by the nature of the human organism 
on the one hand, and the claims of human society 
on the other. Nevertheless, it may be well in 
passing to refer briefly to the manner in which 
the subject of school studies has been treated by 
the different states of the Union as regards legal 
requirements. In general it may be said that as 
the country has developed in wealth and educa- 
tional facilities, the required curriculum has been 
greatly broadened in the direction of what have 



96 PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

been regarded as the social and economic needs 
of the individual. New standards of living have 
required new subjects to be taught in the schools. 
The introduction by statute of one subject after 
another in the several states may be regarded as 
having been done in response to a growing intelli- 
gence on the part of the people in respect to edu- 
cational needs, an intelligence which has been voiced 
by philanthropists and educators. The studies that 
are regarded as being particularly utilitarian in 
character, such as writing, bookkeeping, and arith- 
metic, have been universally prominent. The intro- 
duction of culture studies, like history, Latin, and 
science, has been remarkably slow, and even to-day 
we find them in many places restricted to a few 
grades of the grammar schools. Twenty-four states 
have courses of study more or less uniform. In 
ten these courses were prepared in accordance 
with law. But it is somewhat refreshing to have 
it stated that in no state has the course of study 
been the absolute rule of procedure. Laws re- 
lating to this matter have not been rigidly enforced, 
and where teachers are not afflicted with a too 
sensitive conscience, they are disposed to exercise 
much freedom in the instruction of their pupils. 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 97 

In some instances summer institutes have been 
used as a means of promoting uniformity, and in 
a few states uniform examinations based upon the 
course of study have been tried as the most effec- 
tive means of securing the attention and coopera- 
tion of teachers. The chief trouble with all these 
attempts to enforce a particular curriculum is that 
education in America is yet in a formative state. 
What is thought to be sound and good to-day 
needs revision to-morrow because of some new light 
that is shed upon it. Again, few of these courses 
of study which are the result of legislation embody 
advanced educational thought. It appears that the 
Herbartian doctrines, which are so rich and fruit- 
ful if rightfully interpreted, have influenced but 
few places in the arrangement of their studies. 
When you examine fifty courses of study from as 
many different communities and find almost a dead- 
level of sameness in them, you may feel sure that 
either there has been too little advanced thought 
in their preparation or a lack of courage in rising 
to the situation. 

Turning our attention now to the ideal conception 
of a course of study, and considering it rather from 
a subjective and psychological point of view, there 



98 PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

are at least four phases or characteristics which 
demand special attention, viz. : First, Physical Cul- 
ture ; second, Motor Experience ; third, Sense Train- 
ing; fourth, Conventional Literary Training, which 
deals with symbols and draws largely upon memory 
and imagination. 

It goes without saying that the school of a few 
years ago devoted itself almost entirely to the last 
kind of training. Body training, either in exercise 
or handicraft, and sense activity were largely absent 
from the school. The experience of the youth 
upon the farm or in the shop did much to supply 
this deficiency. To establish the claims of these 
three departments of education, to have the whole 
school life based upon them, and to have the gen- 
eral and more abstract instruction proceed from 
the experience gained through motor and sense 
activity, is the very essence of educational reform. 
It is an acknowledgment of the claims made by 
such educational reformers as Comenius, Rousseau, 
Pestalozzi, and Froebel. 

If I venture to say a few words about each of 
these departments, it must not be assumed that I 
regard them as separate. On the other hand, they 
are inseparable. The human organism is a unit. 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 99 

Thought and action of every kind are indissolubly 
knit together. It is a question whether there is any 
thinking which is not directly or indirectly con- 
nected with some activity. Precise, accurate move- 
ment of any part of the human body is an indication, 
not only of will, but of mental power. " The feeble- 
minded show marked deficiency in the power of 
movement, and in general are wanting in just those 
movements which specially distinguish the human 
species from the lower animals." 

The true course of study will pay much attention 
to physical health. Not only will the teacher be as- 
siduous in respect to those conditions which affect the 
child in the school, — cleanliness, light, air, proper 
distribution of work, relief through exercise, etc., — 
but an active interest will be taken in the home life, 
and an attempt will be made to coordinate the in- 
terests of the school and the home by securing for 
every pupil, as far as possible, proper food at regu- 
lar intervals, abundant sleep, healthful dress, ade- 
quate out-of-door exercise, a reasonable time for 
home study, and immunity from social diversions 
which infringe upon the claims of the school. Fur- 
thermore, there are to be provided systematic and 
progressive forms of play, and gymnastics suited 



100 PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

to the age and needs of the children, given at such 
times, out of doors if possible, as to break the mo- 
notony of the school work and to give physical 
tone. Anything short of this is a violation of the 
first principles of humane and intelligent treatment 
of children. It is fundamental. It affects the 
quality of everything else that is done, and greatly 
increases the possibility of making the intellectual 
and moral life of the child what it should be. Physi- 
cal training has to do with the fundamental organs 
and the great muscles ; and yet many of the games 
and most of the days-orders in gymnastics require 
attention, judgment, and a high degree of coordi- 
nation. They not only partake of the nature of 
motor and sense training, but give large reaction 
to mental strength. 

Considering motor activity, or manual training, 
in its large sense, we have almost a new field. Very 
few courses of study give anything like an ade- 
quate recognition of this phase of culture. As 
physical training, so called, deals with the funda- 
mental muscles used in locomotion and manual 
labor, so motor training secures those finer coor- 
dinations in which the forearm, the hand, and the 
wrist are employed. Indeed, in the evolution of 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY lOI 

man from the lower orders of creation, the hand 
has become a specialized sense organ with vast 
capacity for expression and useful activity, capable 
of numberless coordinations with the directive 
power of the brain. Mr. Frederick Burke in a 
recent article in the Pedagogical Seminary on 
"The Development of the Nervous System," has 
treated in a most interesting manner the relation 
of hand culture to the growth of the higher cen- 
tres of intelligence. 

He says : " The intimate relationship existing be- 
tween the higher intelligence and the more highly 
developed accessory motility of the human hand 
has been so striking that it has been noted even 
as far back as Anaxagoras. The extreme theory 
has been put forth by many modern writers that 
human intelligence, as such, has arisen in direct 
consequence of man's assuming the upright posi- 
tion. The fore limbs, thus relieved of the duties 
of locomotion which in lower animals is more or 
less their exclusive function, have found vent for 
their energy in manifold new employments, and 
have thus introduced the human race to a varied 
world of richer experiences. Intelligence has been 
the product. Trace the evolution of the higher 



I02 PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

human intelligence as we will, — from tool-making 
and tool-using to modern invention, from manual 
sign-making to speech, from hut-building to archi- 
tecture, from picture-writing to painting, from 
bizarre fashioning of fetiches to sculpture, from 
rude drumming to higher instrumental music, — • 
the development of hand and mentality has 
ever been in the closest intimacy of association. 
Under the simple psychological law that processes 
occurring simultaneously tend to fuse, we have 
reason to expect, in advance of evidence, that the 
accessory hand movements and accessory mental 
powers of man should be singularly related." 

Keeping in mind this anthropological view, we 
find much warrant for motor training in its moral 
and social effects. It has already been found ef- 
fective in helping boys of weak will power to over- 
come difficulties and to take pride in their own 
efficiency. It gives courage to those who are dull 
in the conventional studies and helps them to re- 
alize the joy of achievement. The kindergarten 
exemplifies beautifully not only the psychological 
but the social value of physical and motor activity. 
Most of the games of the kindergarten, while en- 
listing children in pleasant and varied physical ex- 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 103 

ercise, meet the fundamental need of the child and 
lead him into various social and economic experi- 
ences which help him to unlock his environment 
and enable him to become an active participant as 
well as an intelligent interpreter of the life of the 
world about him. To-day he is the shoemaker, 
taking part in the labor that pertains to that craft, 
singing songs that epitomize and embrace the im- 
portance of this industry, and perhaps learning a 
little of the actual process of making a shoe. 
Again, he is the warrior knight, and is awakened 
to ideas of bravery and heroism that belong to the 
true soldier. So with the occupations which fur- 
nish motor experience to little children in the kin- 
dergarten, they not only make the hand facile in 
delicate and useful manipulations and react help- 
fully upon the mind, but they put the child in pos- 
session of various kinds of executive power which 
may be profitably and happily employed outside 
of the school. 

The whole range of exercises that have so far 
been adapted to school work, including all kinds 
of intelligent busy-work, lessons in paper-cutting, 
play and whittling, in sloyd and various forms of 
wood and metal working, in needlework, cooking, 



104 PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

and domestic science, as well as drawing and paint- 
ing, supply elements that have had too little promi- 
nence in the schools. To regard them as " fads " 
and only permit their existence in the schools in 
case there is money enough to first provide all 
other things, is indicative of too little appreciation 
of what education is and what our city communi- 
ties require. Unless something is done to supply 
what boys and girls used to get on the farm in the 
way of industrial training, there will soon be mani- 
fest an unfortunate decadence in the stamina of 
city-bred youth. Indeed, many observers claim 
that this decadence is manifest already. With 
proper education of the manual powers taken in 
conjunction with what is being attempted in athletic 
training, it ought not to be true that our strongest 
men and women are born in the country. 

The third department to be considered is Sense 
Training. Now it is manifest that physical culture 
and motor activity are both emphasized forms of 
sense training; but in the laboratory methods of 
the modern school, as applied to nature study, and 
the various fields of science, we find a closer and 
more apparent union of those processes which, 
superficially considered, are distinguished as intel- 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 105 

lectual and physical. The chief function of edu- 
cation, in the common acceptation of the term, is 
to store the mind of the child with a great variety 
of images. Not only are the senses to be kept 
active, but they are to be active in a wise and 
orderly manner. Not only is the child to see 
and to hear, to smell, taste, and touch, but he 
is to do these things under direction, so that the 
result of sense activity is a well-selected store of 
sense impressions which furnish the nutritive ele- 
ments needed to feed the higher mental life. I 
need not dwell upon this particular aspect of 
teaching, but will rather proceed at once to em- 
phasize the point which I wish to make prominent, 
that the fourth division, or the ordinary school 
curriculum, is to be greatly enriched and improved 
through the free play of various kinds of body 
and sense training. 

Every lesson in Geography depends for its eflfi- 
ciency upon the images which children have ac- 
quired through out-of-door experience. History and 
Civil Government mean little to the pupil who has 
not been taught to see with his own eyes and to 
hear with his own ears. Science teaching which 
does not bring the pupil face to face with the 



I06 PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

objects to be studied is now regarded as a farce. 
The doctrine of apperception is a unifying prin- 
ciple, for it shows us that the mental life of any 
person is guided and measured by his past expe- 
riences. This hasty view of the course of study 
from the point of view of the child indicates that 
there is a close and vital connection between these 
kinds of training which seem at first to be distinct. 
The thing to be aimed at is undoubtedly to epito- 
mize all these in every school exercise as far as 
possible. Every schoolroom should be a laboratory 
and every exercise should have in it, to a good 
degree, motor, sense, and thought culture. When 
a teacher takes her children upon a spring or 
autumn day for a lesson out of doors, it is easy 
to epitomize all the possibilities of teaching. There 
is the exercise of the hand in gathering speci- 
mens, the training of the eye in making examina- 
tions and comparisons, and conversation with the 
teacher, whereby truth is made clearer and many 
new facts are brought to light. Then, when the 
class returns to the schoolroom with their materials, 
and with their minds stored with mental images, 
there comes the story or the poem to add deeper 
interest to this out-of-door study, followed, perhaps. 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 107 

by the written exercise which gathers up and ex- 
presses what the pupil has gained. Here all the 
higher powers of the mind — the memory, feeling, 
imagination, appreciation of the beautiful, etc. — are 
called into action. An historical excursion, a visit 
to the art museum, attendance upon a town meeting, 
legislature, or some other public body, afford 
similar opportunities of putting the whole child at 
work. The ordinary course of study with its analy- 
sis of topics and examinations for quantity is a 
barren waste as far as these larger opportunities 
are concerned. 

Let us turn now to the more objective and fa- 
miliar phases of the course of study and see if 
some standards may not be set up that are in 
harmony with and which follow logically what 
has already been suggested. 

The first requirement is that the course of study 
should be broad. We are training a human soul. 
The Creator has made the child to drink at many 
fountains. He is ever on the alert, sensitive, and 
receptive. The discovery that all the germs of 
human power are alive in the child ready to grow 
and be active, and that the best development con- 
sists in awakening all these germs to active life, 



I08 PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

is the great contribution of Froebel to education. 
The quaHty of breadth found in the kindergarten 
should continue in the lower school until the pupil 
is able to specialize without the sacrifice of im- 
portant interests. This implies that at every point 
the course of study is to provide a variety of 
motor and sense activity, and is to bring the 
mind of the child into relation with appropriate 
portions of the whole circle of human intelligence. 
The three " R's," which formerly held the chief place 
in a very narrow scheme, are now treated as the 
mechanical tools of education, and are relegated 
to a less conspicuous position. 

The second feature indispensable in the modern 
course of study is Selection. With the broadened 
curriculum of which I am speaking, the selection 
of topics becomes an important part of the teacher's 
work. All sense of pressure and confusion may 
be avoided if the teacher selects a few central truths 
in every field of study and uses them as types of 
many other similar truths, teaching them with such 
thoroughness that the pupil not only gets thorough 
knowledge, but orderly and systematic habits of 
work as well. What folly it is to teach fifty or a hun- 
dred cities in the United States ! How much better 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 1 09 

to select three or four that are typical and to enter so 
fully into their life, growth, and characteristics that 
the pupil has a body of knowledge of permanent 
value. Nine-tenths of the topography and three- 
fourths of the so-called descriptive portions of geog- 
raphy are waste material in the mind because they 
are simply a lot of disconnected and unimportant 
facts. The same is true of history. A clear under- 
standing of the causes of the Revolutionary War 
with an exhaustive study of perhaps two or three 
battles is vastly better than a labored attempt to 
acquire the whole story. Dr. W. T. Harris, refer- 
ring to this matter in the Report of the Committee 
of Fifteen, says : — 

" No formal labor on a great objective field is 
ever lost wholly, since at the very least it has the 
merit of familiarizing the pupil with the contents 
of some one extensive province that borders on his 
life, and with which he must come into correlation ; 
but it is easy for any special formal discipline, 
when continued too long, to paralyze or arrest 
growth at that stage. The over-cultivation of the 
verbal memory tends to arrest the growth of criti- 
cal attention and reflection. Memory of accessory 
details too, so much prized in the school, is also 



no PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

cultivated often at the expense of an insight into 
the organizing principle of the whole and the causal 
nexus that binds the parts. So, too, the study of 
quantity, if carried to excess, may warp the mind 
into a habit of neglecting quality in its observation 
and reflection." 

This quotation suggests the third point, viz. 
Correlation. Not only are these central truths to 
which I have referred to be taught in such a way 
as to connect the child with the world in which he 
lives, but mutual relations are to be discovered and 
enforced. Thus the mind is to acquire organized 
knowledge and is gradually to become conscious of 
the unity of all truth. 

Fourth, Continuity. This is secured through sys- 
tematic cooperation of teachers and a thorough 
grasp on their part of those well-knit centres of 
knowledge which are made the basis of instruction. 
If there is permanent interest growing out of the 
orderly succession of topics, there will be a con- 
tinued ardent desire to know more and progress 
will be rapid. 

Fifth, Interest. We have long heard a good deal 
about interest as a means, but interest as an end 
is destined to have high value in the modern 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY III 

school. " Knowledge," says Herbart, " shall pass 
away, but interest remains." Whether in literature, 
in mathematics, or in science, a real love for the 
study, such as will make the youth continue to be 
a student after he has left the school, is far better 
than acquisition. Too many of our boys and girls 
shut their books forever when they pass over the 
threshold of the schoolhouse for the last time. If 
the value of interest were fully recognized as the 
thing to be striven for in our common schools, we 
should have fewer examinations and our courses of 
study would be far different from what they are. 

The last quality in this category is Nutrition. 
The mind is not only to be exercised, but, like the 
body, is to be fed also. The grind of the primi- 
tive school often left the mind unnourished. To 
feed the mind with the richest and most inspiring 
truths in the realm of nature and literature, is to 
present these truths in all their grandeur and 
beauty, and to leave them like seed planted in 
good ground to bring forth their appropriate fruit. 

About two years ago a committee was appointed 
at the meeting of the National Association of 
School Superintendents, to formulate some plan for 
an investigation of elementary education in the 



112 PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

United States. The chairman of the committee, 
Professor John Dewey, of the University of Chi- 
cago, with the aid of those associated with him, has 
formulated a long list of questions which, in case 
the plan is adopted, will be sent out as a basis for 
the investigation proposed. Some of these ques- 
tions are quite in line with what I have tried to 
suggest regarding the course of study, that is, the 
value of what is qualitative over what is quantita- 
tive, and a few are given as illustrations. 

To what extent are play and other school exer- 
cises partaking more or less of the character of 
play used for idealizing and extending the child's 
knowledge concerning the industries, commerce, and 
other phases of community Hfe ? 

What use is made of school excursions and 
travel on the part of individual pupils .-' 

In what way does the school consider the child's 
scope of aesthetic appreciation and stimulate the 
same for further extension in the adjustment 
of the school environment, in the ornamentation 
of the grounds and buildings, in the collection of 
photographs, etc.? 

What opportunities are afforded in the school 
and elsewhere to hear good music ? 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 1 13 

In what ways are the child's home, community, 
and school environments utilized in preparing les- 
sons in number, nature study, language, drawing, 
writing, and reading ? 

In what way does the school utilize in its work 
special ability on the part of pupils in oral or 
written work, in technical or art skill in the reci- 
tation, or other legitimate school work? 

How is continuity of progress secured in each 
class and throughout the school as a whole ? 

What is done in the general organism of the 
school to foster community spirit and make the 
children feel at home and make each child feel that 
he has a place in the school as a community and 
not simply with reference to lessons learned ? 

How is the recitation conducted so as to afford 
opportunity for interchange of experience and 
knowledge for the benefit of others, instead of 
serving merely as a test by the teacher for knowl- 
edge acquired ? 

We have not time to consider the relative value 
of different studies. It must be apparent, from 
what has been said, that the educational value of 
any study depends more upon the use that is made 
of it than upon the content of the study itself. 



114 PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

Personally, I sympathize with the view expressed 
in the Report of the Committee of Ten, that cer- 
tain subjects, like English, Physics, and History, 
may be taught with such high motives and with 
such scientific skill as to make them fully equiva- 
lent in value to Latin, Greek, or Mathematics. 

We have heard much of late about the enrich- 
ment of the course of study. There can be no 
true enrichment of a course of study that is pov- 
erty-stricken from beginning to end. It is illogi- 
cal to talk of enriching the diet of a person who 
is in a starving condition. The first thing is to 
give the man something to eat, and as his func- 
tions begin to resume a healthful tone this may 
be increased and enriched until he is in perfect 
physical condition. Breadth and nutrition are to 
be constant factors in our ideal course of study. 
Enrichment in its true sense does not come by 
adding more formal studies anywhere, but by sup- 
plying a more full and complete social life in the 
school and the home. Any studies which minister 
to that life at any point are legitimate. 

It is not necessary to speak of that much-dis- 
cussed term "concentration." There are few peo- 
ple who believe that any study can be made an 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 1 15 

absolute centre. There is nothing outside of the 
child that is of such vast importance as to make 
it worth while that his life shall be subordinate 
to that thing. It is what is within him that we 
need to serve, what he is capable of being indi- 
vidually and socially, that is to guide us. With 
this conviction, the selection of material as objects 
of exercise and interest becomes much easier. We 
have an anchor, and need not be forever drifting. 
We must see that the school life covers perhaps 
the most important part of the child's life. Every 
day must be filled with fruitful activity. We may 
draw on all the materials about us and arrange 
them as best we can, keeping one eye on those 
subjective claims of which I have spoken, and the 
other upon the objective phases of the course of 
study. 

The greatest stumbling-block in the way of sound 
education, to-day, is the rather arbitrary require- 
ments for college to which we have to submit. 
These requirements are opposed to those higher 
philosophical and humanitarian aims which I have 
tried in this, and in a former lecture, to point 
out. Some colleges set up quantitative standards 
and compel teachers in secondary, and under present 



Il6 PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

tendencies in the grammar schools, to meet exac- 
tions which are, to a certain extent, at least, arti- 
ficial and unhealthy. The evils connected with this 
condition are vastly greater where girls come under 
its influence. Those aims in life which should be 
the centre of their interest and thought, and to 
which other things should be subordinate, are 
ignored, and girls are permitted to take college 
courses which were made for men, to the detri- 
ment of health and other higher interests of life. 

I will not take time to recapitulate to any ex- 
tent. The general conclusion to be reached is that 
nine-tenths of the so-called courses of study had 
better be destroyed and a few large, inspiring aims 
and points of direction put in their place. Every 
teacher needs to know the general scope of the 
work to be undertaken, but having this, he should 
have large freedom in working out the problems 
of the school. I have emphasized the claims of 
physical, motor, and sense training, feeling sure 
that the time has come when a radical change 
should be made in the curriculum in favor of these 
forms of education. They are to be introduced 
gradually and with care, but are no longer to 
be treated as "fads." What has been regarded as 



PHASES OF THE COURSE OF STUDY II7 

the usual studies are to be enriched and ennobled 
by broader treatment, which calls into play all the 
powers of the mind and body. Looking at the 
course of study itself, some of the characteristics 
which have been emphasized ought to be present 
If they are kept in mind when a course of study 
is constructed or when lessons are given, there will 
be opportunity for that larger life and interest and 
enthusiasm which give permanent value to all edu- 
cational work, whether of the school or the home, 
and to that unconscious training which comes from 
the community in which we dwell 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

It is difficult for those who are about to enter 
the field of teaching to realize how extraordinary 
are the advantages and how vast are the possi- 
bilities that confront them. Remarkable social 
changes took place between the close of the Revo- 
lutionary War and the middle of this century. 
What has happened since 1850 in our industrial, 
social, and political life is still more wonderful. 
It has been distinctly, the world over, a period of 
invention and industrial development; but in this 
country particularly, we have seen such rapid 
applications of inventive and creative genius to 
every form of industrial life, and such combinations 
of capital and labor in the solving of great prob- 
lems, that the eye of the world has been directed 
toward us, and we may justly boast of having 
accomplished more in a given time than any peo- 
ple has ever been able to do. Some persons have 
chosen to denominate it as a materialistic age, but 

121 



122 EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

as a generalization we can hardly say that that 
does justice to the situation. The means of pro- 
moting popular intelligence through the schools 
and institutions of learning have been amplified 
and improved, so that it would seem that education 
is within the reach of every citizen, and the most 
striking phases of progress have been in line of 
those things which tend to popular enlightenment 
and the general elevation of the masses, as the 
telephone, the daily newspaper, the cheapening of 
books and magazines, the multiplication of public 
libraries, more progressive and rational teaching 
from the pulpit and the lecture platform, and a 
great variety of effort under the head of social 
reform. Hence, it comes to pass that those who 
are going out into the field of education have only 
to adjust themselves in a cooperative way to many 
other forces that are moving forward toward the 
intellectual and moral betterment of the people. 
They do not need to stand alone ; they are not 
called upon in any sense to lead a crusade ; it is 
unwise for them to pose as reformers. The need 
of liberal views and broad treatment of educational 
questions in this country is generally conceded. 
The people themselves know that our very safety 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 1 23 

and perpetuity rest upon that kind of citizenship 
that is the product of good schools. But it is 
highly necessary that those who hope in any sense 
to be leaders in education should be deeply con- 
scious of the genius of our times, and of the gen- 
eral condition of educational progress throughout 
this country and in other countries. They should 
not forget for a moment that the rate of speed 
with which anything is accomplished to-day is 
vastly greater than it was fifty years ago. The 
merchant, sitting in his office with a long-distance 
telephone on one side, and a stenographer on the 
other, can accomplish more business in two hours 
than the same man could perform fifty years ago 
in two weeks. During those two hours he may 
communicate with agents in New York, Chicago, 
New Orleans, and may place orders in London, 
Paris, and Berlin. He has finished his day's work 
by two o'clock, and by four is riding in the park 
with his wife and children. The laboring man 
concludes his day's work at five o'clock, and has 
several hours for self-improvement or recreation. 
Were we to run through the whole catalogue of 
workers in the industrial hive, we should find that 
most of them have far less drudgery and shorter 



124 EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

hours than formerly. They can sympathize with 
the Irishman who, soon after his arrival in this 
country, wrote home that "all he had to do was 
to carry the bricks to the top of the house and 
the other men did all the work." It has been 
noticeable that labor reform has based its claim 
for shorter hours and more freedom, not upon the 
exactions of labor itself, but upon the claims of 
self-improvement and home life. The dream of 
Edward Bellamy in his " Looking Backward " is 
not likely to be soon realized, but there is no gain- 
saying the fact that through the closer organization 
of business and the concentration of labor into 
fewer hours, the masses have far greater oppor- 
tunity to accomplish good, or evil, for themselves 
than has hitherto been the case. This fact places 
more responsibility upon the educator. The youth 
of our time must be so trained in the use and 
appreciation of good books, they must be so inter- 
ested in the nobler problems of self-government, 
they must be so steeled against the dangers of 
bad habits and wasteful expenditure, that the sur- 
plus hours of those who work may be used to their 
own profit and to that of the community. This 
leads me to speak of another tendency in human 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 12$ 

society which is no less potent and clearly defined 
than progress. It is the complement of progress, 
and is known under the general head of degenera- 
tion. This is not a fitting time to go deeply into 
the nature of this force which we know, intuitively, 
is ever acting, in the human organism, as well as 
in the social body. The germs of decay and of 
death are undoubtedly present everywhere, and 
the prudent and discriminating historian, in tracing 
the upward rise of nations, does not fail to point 
out the slight and almost unperceived evidences of 
this insidious agent. Wherever, in the life of 
peoples or of individuals, great wealth or power 
has been acquired, some form of degeneration has 
begun its fateful work; so, while urging the neces- 
sity of being alive to the possibilities of progress, 
we are not to be unmindful of the dangers that 
threaten us, and here, I believe, is to be found one 
of the greatest offices of popular education, and 
that is its corrective function. If in our schools 
we had simply to train children of the middle 
classes who are reared in an atmosphere of indus- 
trial sobriety and thrift, and who, in their physical 
and moral temperament, are normal and healthy, 
our work would be comparatively easy; but we 



126 EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

have to deal, on the one hand, with the children of 
luxury and extravagance, whose parents have for- 
gotten what the principles and elements of sound 
and virtuous character are, and permit their chil- 
dren to run riot at home, and send them to school 
to be a menace to good order and earnest endeavor. 
On the other hand, we have that large number of 
youth who, either by reason of bad heredity or 
uncivilized environment, give early evidence of 
those tendencies that lead to vice and criminality. 
It is self-evident that the modern school curriculum 
must have in it such rigorous physical and manual 
training, such subordination of hand and mind to 
the power of the will, and such cultivation in the 
domestic and home arts as shall be at once a 
remedy for the degenerating tendencies to which 
allusion has been made, and a corrective for those 
dispositions to crime which unfortunately inhere 
in the nature of so many of our youth. 

What has already been said may serve as an in- 
troduction to the second thought, viz. that the 
pedagogy of the future is to take its point of di- 
rection more from sociology than psychology. This 
may be regarded as a governing principle and as 
focussing much that has already been said. The 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 12/ 

educated man is better than the so-called self-made 
man, although he generally attracts less attention. 
Oliver Wendell Holmes, in speaking of a house 
which an Irishman built on the marsh in Cambridge- 
port, said it was evidently a good house and satis- 
fied very well the needs of the man who built it; 
more than that, because he did it all himself, the 
house attracted more attention than the fine blocks 
just beyond which were constructed in the ordinary 
way. But the self-made man as an efficient mem- 
ber of society is becoming more and more a curi- 
osity. The more self-made he is, the less is he in 
touch with the social organism, and the less able is 
he to combine with his fellow-men in rendering 
service in the community. The truly educated man, 
on the other hand, is distinctly different; first, he 
has such knowledge as enables him to interpret his 
social environment; second, he knows himself, which 
has been long recognized as one of the highest forms 
of knowledge ; third, he is at home in his relation 
to those institutions which are the mile-posts of our 
civilization and which embody the social progress 
of the world. These three achievements — the 
knowledge of one's social environment, the sense 
of individual freedom and responsibility, and a con- 



128 EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

sciousness of relationship to human institutions — 
suggest the aims which should dominate modern 
education. These aims and ideals should take pre- 
cedence of everything. They never will conflict 
with the teachings of psychology. On the other 
hand, true psychology will ever justify them and 
will illumine the path which the educator must 
pursue in order to realize them in his work. 
Sociology demands that the educator should see 
clearly what the needs of human society are, in 
fact, should see how human society needs to be 
reformed and rehabilitated so that all tendencies to 
decadence and weakness may be overcome. It 
also demands that the means used in the exercise 
of young minds should be matters of life, yes, of 
the present life. It is of little value to the child 
to read about flies, beetles, moths, and tadpoles 
that some one else has studied and found interest- 
ing. He must see these things as living beings, 
and know them as a part of the great world of 
nature, to which he himself is related. Ten years 
ago the science study in the schools of some of 
our most progressive towns consisted in reading 
from Hooker's " Child's Book of Nature." I sup- 
pose few superintendents of schools would be will- 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 1 29 

ing to acknowledge to-day that they favored and 
defended such study, but it is easy to condemn 
it and say that as nature study it was scarcely 
better than none at all. An equally grave mistake 
has been made in teaching history. Bundles of 
dry facts touching kings and queens and govern- 
ments have been crowded into the memory box of 
children until they were incapacitated for under- 
standing the daily transactions of our local town 
and state governments, and multitudes of children 
have passed out of the schools with little knowl- 
edge of the workings of our national organism, 
and hence with little patriotic pride. The most 
important volume of history of all is the history 
of to-day. One of our best newspapers is a good 
text-book of history; for it is a photographic repre- 
sentation of the world's work in the social, indus- 
trial, political, religious, and educational field. If, 
then, sociology is to control our educational policy, 
we shall endeavor first and last to give the child 
a consciousness of his place in the social community 
and a sense of dignity as a member of this par- 
ticular social order that we call the school. 

We find here a very simple rule for testing the 
educational aims that are employed. If we teach 



130 EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

Arithmetic, we may ask, " What connection do these 
problems establish between the child and actual life 
at the present time ? " " Are they teaching him 
something of actual occurrences in the railroad 
office, in the factory, in the bank, and in the gov- 
ernment office, as they go on from day to day?" 
If it is Geography, the question may be, " How 
can the child best get a true picture of those islands 
west of the continent of Europe to which so many 
of us trace our ancestry ? " " How can he follow 
intelligently a war like that between the young 
kingdom of Greece and the Turks, or the more 
recent one between the United States and Spain, 
and receive a baptism of fresh interest for the 
history of countries involved ? " Using the events 
of to-day, and our immediate environment, we may 
always picture and understand what is remote 
either in time or distance. 

The social claims of education bid us not be 
afraid of educational means that are practical and 
that tend to make men and women useful. Utility 
has no necessary conflict with education. Recently 
in visiting an excellent high school, I stepped into 
a room where no less than twenty students were 
learning stenography and typewriting. With the 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS I3I 

natural reluctance which we all feel in accepting 
as educational those things which are particularly 
useful, I at once inquired what else these young 
people were learning in the high school. The 
principal assured me that they were taking a three 
years' course which was strong in English studies, 
and which gave a good degree of the culture ele- 
ment. For such a yoking together of utility and 
culture there can only be the highest commenda- 
tion. The trade schools of the immediate future, 
which I believe will mark an important step in 
the growth of the manual training idea, will under- 
take to initiate boys and girls into the principles 
and processes involved in production. This kind 
of education will be accompanied by such courses 
in history, literature, science, and art as shall ele- 
vate and refine the whole nature, as shall dignify 
labor, and tend to reproduce what once existed in 
central Europe, — a race of artist artisans. There is 
every argument for encouraging this movement in 
education. To be sure, the old-fashioned trade 
school, which would try to make all the youth of 
the community brick-layers, shoemakers, or carpen- 
ters, is a thing of the past, but that broad, indus- 
trial laboratory which fills the gap now existing 



132 EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

between the technical school on the one hand and 
the art museum on the other, is likely to become 
a prominent factor in our civilization. Moreover, 
education best serves the progress of mankind 
when it emphasizes the improvement of the home 
with its interests and duties, and when it renders 
homage to vocation, for vocation performs two im- 
portant functions : first, it makes home possible by- 
bringing comfort and happiness to the family, and 
second, it makes it feasible for the individual man 
to render service to the community. So I say 
again, let us look to the social world around us 
for our guiding points in education, and let us not 
be afraid, while holding firmly to the humanities 
and those means that enrich and cultivate the mind, 
to add any or all of those utilities to our educa- 
tional courses that tend to elevate the vocation, 
ennoble and beautify the home, and permit every 
man to become a factor in the improvement of 
those conditions which determine human happiness. 
With these points well in mind, let us ask what 
shall be the general attitude of the educator toward 
educational progress.? Without going much into 
detail, I would suggest that we keep our minds 
open, ready to receive new truth from any source 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 1 33 

whatever. It is so easy for the teacher to imbibe 
prejudice and to become conceited of his own at- 
tainments and successes. Let us resist this ten- 
dency as being full of danger. Then again, it is 
so easy to allow our work to become mechanized, 
especially when we think we have nearly reached 
perfection. So many new discoveries are being 
made and the nature of mind is so subtle and full 
of possibilities, that the dictates of wisdom will 
prevent us from permitting our methods to crys- 
talize, I remember receiving a letter some years 
since from a man who desired a testimonial in con- 
nection with an application which he had made 
for another position. He wrote, " You are aware 
that I originated a system in . . . town which was 
somewhat different from that to be found else- 
where and I shall hope to introduce the same sys- 
tem if I am elected to this position." I wrote in 
reply that, notwithstanding my kindly feeling toward 
him personally, I should hesitate to recommend 
any one who had committed himself to any system, 
so called, or who prided himself upon having made 
such important discoveries. Not only should there 
be the open eye and freedom from undue pride, 
but a willingness to try experiments, a constant 



134 EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

desire to make new adjustments. Why should not 
education improve from day to day ? Visit the 
shops of our great railroads or the laboratories 
connected with some of our great textile factories. 
Here you will find scientific thought applied most 
assiduously in making a better and more economi- 
cal adjustment, and discovering new combinations 
of materials for the improvement of color or tex- 
ture. We are all reaping the benefit of invention 
and painstaking skill applied in the perfection of 
the bicycle. Can we think of putting less of care 
and thought and experiment into the culture of 
human souls than is applied in arranging and per- 
fecting the parts of this machine so as to make it 
better serve our use and convenience? 

The power of remembering what has been in 
the past is cherished as a valuable factor. I be- 
lieve the art of forgetting is no less desirable. 
Were we to get rid of those prepossessions which 
were engraved upon us through our early train- 
ing, many of us would be better teachers. Our 
method and our thought are apt to be a composite 
photograph of the thought and method of those 
who have had a hand in our education. A dan- 
ger signal should be raised at this point. 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 1 35 

With all our readiness to experiment, let us be- 
ware of patent devices which may be good for a 
day, but soon become dead like the foliage of last 
year. I remember the principal of a school who 
was ever devising some ingenious arrangement or 
method for conducting recitations. His ideas seemed 
to propagate with remarkable frequency, and his 
work in supervision consisted in making his teach- 
ers use these patent appliances. He was warned 
that his inventions in this respect would be Ukely 
to undermine his usefulness in the end, and the 
prophecy became true ; for he lost his position, 
and is now conducting a fifty-acre farm in New 
York State. There is a long line of investigation 
and experiment, which may be conducted under the 
general head of Child Study, which is sure to react 
favorably upon all who undertake it. The tendency 
to individualize, to separate children who are espe- 
cially defective by nature and to find for them some 
particular treatment, is an interesting line of effort. 
It has been said that we learn best how to treat the 
normal child by acquainting ourselves with the treat- 
ment which has been found successful in dealing 
with the abnormal. Thus we may well afford to 
go and study the methods employed in dealing 



136 EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

with the bHnd, the deaf and dumb, and the feeble- 
minded. The success attending the patient efforts 
used in educating Laura Bridgeman and Helen 
Keller throw a flood of light upon the problems of 
individual treatment which occur in every school. 

Another legitimate field for experiment is the 
improvement of physical conditions and the pro- 
vision for a more healthful life in the school and 
the home. There is no difference of opinion as to 
the importance of out-of-door educational experience, 
both for the purposes of nature study and physical 
training, and the material at hand in the way of 
games and athletic sports is ample ; but how to 
organize these means so that the largest possible 
number of pupils shall have the advantage of suita- 
ble play, and to so concentrate them that there is 
economy of time and labor, is a fruitful field for 
investigation. It has been suggested that, in a 
given school system, the pupils of the high school 
may be instructed in a great variety of games 
suitable for the playground, and that students thus 
instructed may be delegated to go and lead the 
games in the other schools, so that pupils of all 
grades may gradually be enlisted in a variety of 
healthful and enjoyable sports. I remember stand- 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 1 37 

ing with the head master of Rugby School in that 
famous Hbrary which still contains the furniture 
which was there when Dr. Arnold presided over 
the school, and looking out upon the beautiful 
Rugby Close, where five hundred boys were all 
actively engaged in cricket and other games. I 
have never seen any pleasanter picture, and it 
suggests the ideal for which we must work. A 
system which simply trains the athletes, or which 
overtrains those who really need but a minimum 
of training, while the great majority are merely 
spectators of the game, is at variance with just 
and democratic theories. To make universal the 
advantages of the playground will not only facili- 
tate educational work, but will improve the physique 
of coming generations. 

How best to incorporate aesthetic training into 
the schools is as yet somewhat unsettled. The 
educative value of music, poetry, painting, and 
sculpture, are only partially understood. If edu- 
cational leaders are not strenuous in this direction, 
there is little hope for the future. There is no 
community so poor that it cannot surround its chil- 
dren with some of those things that refine and 
ennoble. Science is excellent, but Art is even 



138 EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

greater, as it ministers to the spiritual sense and 
points the thought to the higher unity. How im- 
portant it is that teachers should drink deeply at 
the living fountains of literature and art, and keep 
themselves fresh and enthusiastic in their allegiance 
to these great sources of culture. 

Still another field for study with which the edu- 
cator should become acquainted is that occupied 
by the social reformer. The altruism so active at 
the present time partakes of the true educational 
spirit, and should be recognized by those who are 
forming individual traits, and so are establishing the 
character of community life. There is much to learn 
by visiting College settlements and those institutions 
supported by philanthropy which minister to the 
moral and intellectual needs of the unfortunate and 
needy. The public school is undoubtedly the great- 
est social force, but it must not become arrogant 
nor forget that many other forces also are at work 
which deserve respect, and which are worthy of 
being studied. It is to be lamented that the Church 
does not take that advanced position concerning edu- 
cation which is warranted by the nature of the case, 
but a different case of affairs will soon come to pass. 

It is noticeable that many of those who have 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 1 39 

died recently have made large public bequests. 
Few have given anything to churches, while nine- 
tenths of their legacies have been to institutions 
of learning. Let us look hopefully for that man 
who, at his death, will endow a primary school so 
that little children may be surrounded with things 
beautiful and interesting. Here then is our field ; to 
so commend the work of child nurture in all its vast 
meaning to people of wealth and character that, 
in time, vastly more will be done for education at 
the foundations where the masses are getting their 
lessons of life. 

Finally, a part of the great responsibility rest- 
ing upon the American people to properly educate 
its sons and daughters, must be assumed by those 
who aspire to be educational leaders. Public pride 
and generosity are on our side, and people are 
glad to respond if the appeal comes with ear- 
nestness and sincerity. Never before was money 
poured out so liberally for all grades of educa- 
tion. Never before were erected such splendid 
buildings for schools and colleges ; never before 
were so many men and women of university train- 
ing and culture attracted to the educational field ; 
never before have philanthropists and statesmen 



I40 EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

reached out to the schools so confidently and in- 
voked their aid in the work of regenerating so- 
ciety. Even the Church is waking up, and it will 
soon be understood that Christianity can find no 
greater field than in vitalizing educational means 
and endeavors of whatever kind. 

At this important juncture, when so many obli- 
gations are laid upon the schools, there is the 
greatest need of cooperation. The school cannot 
stand alone. It is essentially an institution of the 
people and needs their constant support. Teachers 
and supervisors will invite the aid of all, and will 
welcome suggestion and criticism from whatever 
source it comes. If the nation which we love is 
to fulfil the high destiny which patriots and states- 
men have ever predicted for her, it must be be- 
cause those who consecrate themselves to the cause 
of education are alive to their opportunities, and 
train up a body of citizens that will be intelligent 
enough to stand for the right, whether in war or 
peace. The national flag upon the American school- 
house is significant of the confidence which the 
people place in popular education, and is indicative 
of the faith in patriotism born of education which 
is made free to all. 



THE RELATION OF EDUCATION 
TO VOCATION 



THE RELATION OF EDUCATION 
TO VOCATION 

The educational system of this country was built 
upon an exceedingly narrow foundation. The in- 
struction of the masses had made little headway 
in the mother country, and here the stream did not 
rise higher than its source. Furthermore, the life 
of the pioneer was not favorable to intellectual 
training. The necessity of providing, for himself 
and his own, food, clothing, and shelter made ex- 
acting demands upon his time and energies. Books 
were few, communication was slow ; and so the 
early settlers were often both isolated and illiterate. 
It should always be remembered, however, that life 
in a new country is intense. There are difficulties 
to be overcome, dangers to be met, and pressing 
wants to be supplied. Experience, under such con- 
ditions, is, in an important sense, education. Pio- 
neers were often not only poorly equipped with 
the means of comfort and convenience, but were 

143 



144 THE RELATION OF EDUCATION 

even wanting common tools and implements of 
labor. They had to be at one and the same time 
architect, builder, inventor, and mechanic. While 
the spinning-wheel and loom occupied one corner 
of the settler's cabin, the bench, the anvil, and the 
forge were likely to be seen in another corner. In 
the varied and interesting round of duties which 
followed each other in close succession through all 
seasons of the year, every member of the house- 
hold had his part to perform. There was little 
recreation or dissipation, and nothing of idleness ; 
but there were independence and freedom. As 
communities became large enough so that men 
could pursue special mechanical trades, it was per- 
mitted them to work as many hours as they pleased, 
and receive any rate of wages their abilities could 
command. So strong is the tendency of man to 
react upon his environment, to become disciplined in 
mind and character by the putting forth of energy 
and the overcoming of difficulties, and there is such 
educational potency in the diversified industrial life 
of which we were speaking, that we are never sur- 
prised to read of the peculiar intelligence and stam- 
ina that possessed our fathers. When we think 
of the problems they solved and of the victories 



TO VOCATION 145 

they won; when we remember how they did their 
own thinking, without the aid of newspapers or 
books ; how they adapted means to end in the ac- 
complishment of great undertakings, — we are per- 
fectly sure that many of us who live in these days 
of so-called sweetness and light are but dwarfs, 
while they were giants. 

But, as I have before intimated, as far as schools 
were concerned, or the artificial means of educa- 
tion, our country in its younger days had little to 
offer. To read and write and reckon were accom- 
plishments useful in those days. These, therefore, 
constituted the school curriculum. Considered as 
mental training, what was obtained in the schools 
amounted to but little. Education, in its best sense, 
was acquired on the farm and in the shop, where 
the mind was ever alert and active, and where the 
trained hand was its obedient servant. 

Let me say, in passing, that the so-called higher 
education, engrafted here from the English uni- 
versities, was relatively as narrow as that of the 
common schools. We respect it as we do the com- 
mon school, not so much for what it 'was or for 
what it accomplished in the early days as for what 
it is now and for what it is likely to become in 



146 THE RELATION OF EDUCATION 

the working out of our high destiny as a nation. 
While we often go back and draw important edu- 
cational lessons from the industrialism peculiar to 
pioneer days, we get few suggestions from the 
school and college of those times that are perti- 
nent to the new conditions under which we are 
now living. 

In order that we may understand how backward 
education has been in recognizing the social changes 
accomplished during the present century, and the 
pressing needs occasioned thereby, it is only neces- 
sary to recall what we were, how we lived, and 
how we transacted business one hundred years ago, 
and then to contemplate our country as we see it 
to-day, leading the world in almost every phase of 
industrial and commercial activity. Our develop- 
ment has been unprecedented, so that the world 
has stood and wondered. By a combination of 
favoring circumstances, our national domain was 
extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific. All 
this vast territory has been rapidly settled, and its 
virgin soil has teemed with fabulous crops of food 
products. Farmers and mechanics of Europe have 
flocked thither until some nationalities are nearly 
as largely represented here as in the old country. 



TO VOCATION 147 

In the meantime the age of machinery has been 
ushered in. While the West, with her cheaper 
methods of production, by means of the railroad 
was filling our markets with corn, wheat, and beef, 
enterprising men in New England were building 
mills and factories upon the banks of every river 
and mountain stream. The vast mineral resources 
of the country have been discovered and utilized. 
The railroad, the steamship, the telegraph, and the 
telephone have made us all neighbors, and have 
brought us within speaking distance of every part 
of the globe. Inventive genius has supplied every 
craft with labor-saving machines, thus disbarring 
many forms of labor, and compelling many artisans 
and mechanics to seek new adaptations of their 
skill. 

Because of this revolution in our material affairs, 
many political and economic problems have arisen, 
in the settling of which our governmental ma- 
chinery has been strained to the utmost. Grave 
moral issues have tested our loyalty and manhood, 
and have cost us dearly in treasure and in blood. 

Now, it is not unusual for the optimistic observer 
of our national greatness and prosperity, wishing 
to find causes therefor, to say that it is largely 



148 THE RELATION OF EDUCATION 

due to our excellent system of public education. 
There is a certain sense in which this is true. It 
is more true of the last twenty years of educa- 
tional effort than of what preceded. As one who 
believes that teaching and other educational forces 
constitute the most generic, the most potent, and 
the most essential thing in the world; as one who 
believes that our Lord and Master was essentially 
a teacher, and not a preacher, that he used edu- 
cational methods in all his work, and gave the 
stamp of his divine approval to those methods, 
and that the church of the future is going to use 
such methods more and more, — I am not the one 
to disparage or minimize the importance of the 
work performed by American schools in the past 
in moralizing, in disciplining, and in instructing the 
young. I do say, however, that in a certain im- 
portant sense our nation has become great and 
influential, not by reason of public education or of 
college education, but in spite of it. Or, putting 
it otherwise, there is a sense in which our country 
has failed of her opportunity, and is behind the 
spirit of the present age, because our educational 
machinery from top to bottom has been old-fash- 
ioned, poorly constructed, and poorly organized, 



TO VOCATION 149 

and has been able to go only at such a low rate 
of speed that there has always been too little of 
the finished product and far too much of the raw 
material. As I review the history of the past fifty 
years, I can think of no form of activity that has 
been so slow in adapting itself to new conditions 
as has teaching. Go into a typical American house, 
whether in city or country, and you see something 
quite different from what was there half a century 
ago. The food, the dress, the furniture, are quite 
changed. You will see books and newspapers, and 
possibly works of art and musical instruments. Go 
into a modern hospital, and see the perfect ap- 
pointments for treating the sick and the injured. 
Follow the physician, and observe that his methods 
are diametrically opposed to those in vogue a gen- 
eration ago. Notice the newer conception of what 
crime is and how it is to be cured or prevented. 
Consider what the State and the municipality do 
for public health, safety, and convenience. Surely, 
the world has moved rapidly ; and with it have 
gone philanthropy and civic progress. Even the- 
ology and the administration of justice are en- 
deavoring to keep up with the procession. But, 
as compared with some of those things mentioned 



I50 THE RELATION OF EDUCATION 

above, education has been slow, inexcusably slow. 
Many and many a child in New England is 
sent to the same little dingy schoolhouse where 
his grandfather went before him, sits upon the 
same hard seats, stares at the same bare and 
dingy walls, and in too many instances, I regret 
to say, recites what he has committed to memory 
from a book much of which means little to him 
and the learning of which can do him but little 
good. This is doubtless an extreme picture, but I 
am assured by persons holding official positions 
that it is true to fact. Between this condition of 
things and the best types of the modern schools 
found in our large towns and cities there are all 
grades of mediocrity and excellence. But the sig- 
nificant fact is the tenacity with which we have 
clung to the methods of the pioneer school. It 
cannot be denied that the three " R's " have 
reigned supreme until within recent years. To be 
sure, the course of study was gradually broadened 
by the introduction of geography and here and 
there a little history and science. The methods 
pursued, however, were so abstract and literary 
that the child was not trained to observe, to appre- 
ciate, or to reason. Some educational theories and 



TO VOCATION 151 

some that were even startling, from such thinkers 
as John Locke, Comenius, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, 
and Froebel, had been handed down to us ; but 
we were too much occupied in organizing the 
rapidly increasing masses of children in our towns 
and cities into so-called graded schools to devote 
much time to the finer problems of nurture and 
instruction. The kindergarten was on exhibition 
here and there as a curiosity ; but teachers smiled 
at it, and few parents wanted it, inasmuch as it 
did not teach the children to read and cipher. 
The wonderful possibilities of childhood as regards 
the development of faculty and the accumulation 
of the elements of all knowledge as food for the 
nurture and enrichment of the immortal mind, 
these were a sealed book to most people; and, 
while they were apprehended and preached by 
certain prophets, they made little headway until 
recently in reforming actual practice. 

But this is not all. Not only in a general 
sense have we been content to tithe mint, anise, 
and cumin while neglecting the weighter matters 
of the law, but we have failed in arranging our 
educational courses to recognize one of the most 
vital factors in any civilized society ; namely, Voca- 



152 THE RELATION OF EDUCATION 

tion. As the home is the unit and the very soul 
of our social order, as everything that is best and 
most effective in forming habits and opinions and 
establishing character centres there, and as it is 
the birthplace and seat of those pure affections 
and high aspirations that sweeten and ennoble our 
mortal life, so, it must be conceded, vocation is its 
chief corner-stone ; or to use a stronger and a bet- 
ter figure, it is its very heart's blood. Vocation is 
a good deal more than the opposite of idleness. 
It is labor dedicated to the highest purposes ; to 
wit, the cherishing of the family and the home. 
Abraham leading his flocks over the rich pastures 
of Mesopotamia, Plato teaching in the groves of 
Athens, Michel Angelo creating those immortal 
frescoes in Rome, and Edison toiling with miracu- 
lous success in his laboratory are all great in honor 
and esteem, because, faithful in their vocation, they 
accomplished great deeds. No less worthy of re- 
spect is the honest farmer or mechanic of the pres- 
ent day, the fruits of whose labor minister to the 
support of a well-ordered home and insure happi- 
ness to wife and children. Whether or not labor 
was intended to be a curse, as some have insisted 
on claiming, certain it is that it becomes the great- 



TO VOCATION 153 

est blessing only when it operates under the hallow- 
ing influence of domestic love. 

As vocation is the chief support of the home and 
tends to develop individual character and manhood, 
so it clearly underlies the welfare and prosperity of 
the nation. When nations are at war, there is al- 
ways distress, because men are prevented from 
pursuing their ordinary vocations. We see in Cuba 
to-day a terrible instance of industrial prostration ; 
suffering and death are everywhere. When for 
any reason there is depression in business and the 
great wheels of industry are silent, so that men 
are thrown back upon themselves with no chance 
to earn their accustomed wage, then a shadow is 
over the entire community. I read to-day that by 
a single failure in New York more than two thou- 
sand people are suddenly deprived of the privilege 
of pursuing their vocation. Under present con- 
ditions few of them will easily find lucrative em- 
ployment. What this means of trial, anxiety, and 
deprivation for fathers, mothers, and children, is 
only a chapter in that unwritten tragedy that is 
being enacted all about us. When such things 
happen, not only the community becomes poorer, 
but there is less of patriotism and faith in the 



154 THE RELATION OF EDUCATION 

hearts of the citizens. The best Christian is not 
a hungry one, and the truest patriot is not he who 
is waiting for a chance to toil. Mr. W. H. Mallock, 
of England, in his recent work on " Labor and Popu- 
lar Welfare," emphasizes this idea as follows : " Give 
a man comfort in even the humblest cottage, and 
the glow of patriotism may, and probably will, give 
an added warmth to that which shines upon him 
from his fireside. But if his children are crying 
for food, and he is shivering by a cold chimney, 
he will not find much to excite him in the knowl- 
edge that we govern India. Thus, from whatever 
point of view we regard the matter, the welfare 
of the home, as secured by a sufficient income, is 
seen to be at once the test and the end of Govern- 
ment; and it ceases to be the end of patriotism 
only when it becomes the foundation of it." 

Considering, then, the great importance of voca- 
tion in determining the quality of manhood and 
citizenship, the question, "What ought education 
to do in this connection ?" is certainly a pressing 
one. It becomes especially so when we consider 
the social and industrial changes during the past 
fifty years, to which I have already alluded. Time 
will permit me only to enumerate in a most cursory 



TO VOCATION 155 

way a few points in which we are especially deficient. 
There is little or nothing in our school curriculum 
respecting the theory of the mutual interdependence 
of capital and labor. Our high schools, which in- 
clude on an average about five per cent of our 
boys and girls, are some of them devoting a frac- 
tion of time to the subject of economics. But even 
there, so far as I know, there is nothing of indus- 
trial history, and no study of the causes that 
have led to the present industrial unrest. And 
in our common schools, where the other ninety- 
five per cent of our children attend, there has been 
no attempt to open their minds to truths of this 
sort. Had one-half of the energy and legislation 
that has been spent in vainly seeking to have 
scientific temperance taught in our schools been 
applied in teaching vocation in its industrial, social, 
and political bearings, a far greater good would, in 
my opinion, have been accomplished. Our schools 
may not be able to prevent strikes ; but the school 
and the Church may unite in such a wholesome ex- 
position of the Golden Rule and that greatest of 
commandments, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself," as will give both employer and employed 
new standards for the settlement of their difficul- 



156 THE RELATION OF EDUCATION 

ties. The ideal of industrial cooperation, which 
has been successfully reached in some instances, 
will not become a universal fact until it is developed 
by a process of education. 

We hear about the desirability of recovering the 
lost arts of Egypt, of India, of China and Japan 
traces of which are brought to light by the an- 
tiquarian. If we examine the industrialism of from 
two to four hundred years ago as it existed in Eng- 
land, Belgium, and Germany, we find much that 
might be catalogued with the lost arts. A boy was 
permitted to be an apprentice to a respectable trade, 
and afterward to take his place in society as a 
thrifty, enterprising mechanic with a good degree 
of independence. He was often at the same time 
the producer and the merchant of his wares. He 
was not tied down to a dead level of opportunity, 
as is done by the modern trades-union. If he pos- 
sessed artistic skill, he could add beauty to utility 
in such a way as to impart high value to his prod- 
uct. He had every incentive to make common 
utensils as beautiful as possible. Hence those artist 
artisans of the earlier centuries, for the spirit in 
which they wrought and the wondrous charm of 
their execution, will ever be famous. Go to Nurem- 



TO VOCATION 157 

berg, and behold those marvellous fountains, monu- 
ments, and buildings, and see everywhere the touch 
of the artist's hand, who, "being dead, yet speaketh," 
and think what the city must have been when to 
all this beauty of form there was added the color- 
ing of such artists as Albert Diirer and his remark- 
able school. There were trade organizations in 
those days; but how different from those of the 
present ! The ancient guilds existed in order that 
craftsmen might help each other. The sick were 
visited. When feasts were held, wine and food 
were sent to those absent. The poor were relieved, 
and funerals were taken care of by the brethren. 
In Charles Reade's " The Cloister and the Hearth," 
we find a charming picture of the life and homes 
of craftsmen in the German cities. Says Gerade, 
writing to his sweetheart : " The workmen of all the 
guilds are so kind and brotherly to one another and 
to me. Here, methinks, I have found the true 
German mind, loyal, frank, and kindly." 

Vocation then held something of honor and dig- 
nity. Skilful craftsmen were proud to be known 
by their trade ; and it is no accident that a large 
number of our English surnames tell us what crafts 
our fathers pursued. Now, I submit that we can- 



158 THE RELATION OF EDUCATION 

not claim too much for our public schools until 
they aim to bring back to the consciousness of our 
youth a sense of the dignity of labor, of whatever 
sort, and the brotherhood and mutual dependence 
of men in all their industrial relations. 

Another respect in which the schools have been 
backward has been in failing to recognize the scien- 
tific tendencies of the age. The Greek culture 
and the humanities, which have been the backbone 
of our higher education, have been a sort of saving 
grace in our American life during a period that 
was necessarily formative and materialistic. The 
lower schools, also, reflecting this literary idea, gave 
a training which, though narrow and insufficient, 
led to good habits. But with the development of 
machinery have come numberless applications of 
science in the line of physics, mechanics, and 
chemistry. Every factory is in a certain sense a 
laboratory, where experiments are continually made 
calling for some knowledge, at least, of scientific 
ideas. The call for persons trained to do this work 
has been loud and long, and it is surprising to think 
how few years have passed since Yale and Harvard 
provided laboratories for individual work. It is 
equally strange that in the common schools the 



TO VOCATION 159 

provision made for science teaching is very meagre. 
I know of but one grammar school in New England 
that has adequate accommodations for teaching 
chemistry and physics. Now, all this bears very 
directly upon the point at issue. To fill respectably 
the new vocations, men and women need scientific 
ideas and scientific habits of mind, which only the 
schools can give. Had it not been for the higher 
technical schools and the educated workmen who 
have come to us from Europe, our industries would 
have fared badly. 

Still another deficiency was revealed to us in the 
Centennial Exhibition in 1876, a fact too familiar 
to need repetition. The result of that eye-opening 
event has been the movement for manual training. 
While many schoolmasters have been questioning 
and deliberating, the pressure from without has 
been so great for something better and broader 
that encouraging progress has been made in plac- 
ing the manual and domestic arts upon an equal 
footing with book studies. While many high schools 
have been equipped with manual training courses, 
efficient kindergartens have fully demonstrated the 
educational value of hand-work for young children. 
The process of leavening is going on in our gram- 



l60 THE RELATION OF EDUCATION 

mar schools ; and it is safe to say that within a 
reasonable time the elements of needlework, cookery, 
and the use of wood-working tools will be incor- 
porated in all our larger schools. Industrial draw- 
ing has long since ceased to be a novelty, and no 
one questions its value. 

All this is being done with an eye to the broad 
cultivation of the powers, with no attempt to teach 
special trades. At the same time we should be 
bUnd if we did not see that this new education, 
in which the brain and hand are trained together, 
will have an important bearing upon the choice 
of a vocation and success therein. At least it 
may be said that the manual training idea is 
destined to serve as a connecting hnk between the 
abstract and the concrete, between the world of 
thought and the world of action. It furnishes a 
revelation of what real education may do in arous- 
ing, interesting, and holding the energies of the 
average child. If applied to those mentally weak 
or morally deficient, its effects are still more strik- 
ing. The teacher, the missionary, and the re- 
former have found a new weapon ; and manual 
labor is sure to have a large place in all future 
educational and social work. 



TO VOCATION l6l 

But this is not enough. Its results, while ex- 
cellent in a general way, do not bear with suffi- 
cient directness upon vocation. Even if a boy 
acquires considerable skill in the use of wood- 
working tools, carpentry is only one of a hundred 
trades ; and, while through manual training the 
boy's aptitudes are made apparent, and his mind 
is turned to some particular craft, when he attempts 
to find his place in the labor market, he is com- 
paratively helpless. There is no open door to the 
position he desires to obtain. The temptations to 
become a clerk or a salesman to an ambitious 
American youth are very strong. 

This leads me perhaps to the most serious count 
of all against our educational system, that it does 
not provide such trade instruction as enables the 
grammar-school graduate to enter at once upon 
the pursuit of a handicraft. I need not enlarge 
upon the great and pressing need of trade schools. 
Social changes have brought the bulk of our popu- 
lation into cities, where every idle and shiftless 
member of the community is a menace to the pub- 
lic peace and welfare. It is indeed pitiful to see 
our American young men pleading for the oppor- 
tunity to work, and yet failing to find employment 



1 62 THE RELATION OF EDUCATION 

because their hands are untrained. Not only in 
the city, but in the country also, there is need of 
special training. The hard times that our New 
England farmers are undergoing are not due en- 
tirely to the tariff, and certainly not to the lack 
of silver dollars. The soil has become impover- 
ished, and needs scientific treatment in order to 
be made to produce bountifully. Farmers in the 
East can no longer raise corn and wheat at a 
profit; but, if skilled in the arts of horticulture 
and if versed in agricultural chemistry, they may 
find in their own local markets an abundant re- 
turn for their labors. Why should not agricultural 
chemistry be taught in our normal schools .'' Why 
should not special schools for young farmers be 
established to foster our great national industry? 
Something has been done by private munificence 
and industrial corporations in planting trade schools. 
But the time has come when the State must meet 
this issue promptly and generously if we are to 
keep pace with the nations of Europe. 

I have referred to the ancient guilds of Europe. 
It is an interesting fact that some of the old so- 
cieties of London, which still preserve their organi- 
zation and continue their annual banquets, have 



TO VOCATION 163 

begun to apply their accumulated wealth to the 
founding and support of trade schools. Heaven 
grant that some of the labor unions of this country- 
may be led to dedicate a portion of their energies 
and means to the advancement of this cause ! 

In all attempts to develop a system of trade 
instruction one principle should be the dominant 
motive and guide ; and that is, to emphasize the 
dignity of vocation, and to elevate and bless the 
American home. One objection is quite sure to 
be raised, and I should not be surprised if it were 
to come from craftsmen themselves, whose boys 
and girls are sure to be benefited by this move- 
ment; and that is the danger of the overstimu- 
lation of industry, of too many craftsmen, and of 
overproduction. There is an effective answer to 
that argument in the truth that, while there may 
be overproduction in those things that provide for 
the bare physical wants of mankind, as food, cloth- 
ing, and shelter, there has never been nor ever 
will be overproduction in those finer aesthetic 
products of handiwork that satisfy the spiritual 
wants of mankind. Works of art, whether in 
statuary or in painting, in music or literature, can- 
not glut the market. Human needs in respect 



164 THE RELATION OF EDUCATION 

to those things that deUght the eye, kindle the 
emotions, and feed the soul, are infinite. And, 
when I plead for trade schools, I want to have 
the art idea predominate. The outside of the house 
is well enough. Let us provide furnishings for 
the inner chambers of the soul. Let the future 
American artisan have that generous feeling, that 
deep insight, and that delicate artistic touch that 
shall lift our common life farther and farther 
away from what is rude and common and bar- 
baric. 

Did time permit, I would speak of hopeful indi- 
cations as seen in the tendencies of common- 
school education at the present time. Antipater 
demanded fifty children as hostages from the 
Spartans. They offered him in their stead a 
hundred men of distinction. Jean Paul Richter, 
referring to this in the first chapter of his 
" Levana," says that "ordinary educators precisely 
reverse the offering." I am glad that this is not 
true to-day. Teachers and mothers are coming to 
know that the possibilities of a child for a good 
and useful life are largely wrapped up in his earli- 
est years. The enriching and broadening of the 
school Hfe, as is now being done, the introduction 



TO VOCATION 165 

of science, of literature, of art, music, and manual 
training into every part of the course, are long 
steps toward that vocational success and happiness 
which we desire to see. 

Let me briefly recapitulate : Education in this 
country has clung too closely to old ideas and 
conditions, and has not adapted itself easily to 
new situations. It has been too abstract and gen- 
eral, and has not recognized the place vocation 
holds in the life of the individual and the nation. 
I have shown that little or no attention has been 
given to the historical growth of industry or the 
mutual relations of labor and capital, and that our 
condition in respect to the independence and 
happiness of the laborer compares unfavorably 
with that of several centuries ago. Emphasis has 
been laid upon the inadequate teaching of sci- 
ence and the consequent failure to meet present 
demands. 

Manual training, while a most promising leaven 
to the old methods of education, has little immedi- 
ate connection with vocation. The trade school is 
demanded, and the support of the State is invoked. 
In the working-out of this problem purely merce- 
nary or materialistic motives should not prevail. 



1 66 THE RELATION OF EDUCATION TO VOCATION 

Use and beauty should be wedded together, thus 
paying deference to the higher nature of man, 
and opening up an infinite opportunity for the 
exercise of creative and artistic genius. 



THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 
TO THE SCHOOL 



THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 
TO THE SCHOOL 

Two inquiries are pertinent to this discussion : 
First, What relation does the Church sustain to the 
institutional Ufe of the times ? Second, To what 
extent is her attitude toward the schools of the 
nation, public and private, consistent with the 
aims for which she exists ? 

It must be conceded that such institutions as the 
home, the civic state, and the school hold a place 
of preeminent importance in the general plan for 
the world's redemption which Christ came to 
announce. As we see them to-day in the more 
civilized portions of the world, refined and ennobled 
through the toil and struggle of centuries, they 
impress us as being the finest fruits of Christianity. 
They reflect in a very large degree the principles 
which Jesus came to teach and for which he 
lived, toiled, and suffered. These institutions, 
imperfect as yet, but beneficent, progressive, and 

169 



I/O THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

full of promise, are the witness of history to the 
triumph of Christianity. 

But some one will remind us that they existed 
in pagan times and even reached some degree of 
excellence ; that they, therefore, cannot be credited 
to Christianity. But it may be said in reply that 
God was in the world working for better things 
even before the Christian era, and that the natural 
laws which determine the upward movement of 
man were in full operation. And it is clear that 
wherever the redemptive love of Christ has had 
free course these forces have become something 
quite different from 'what they were in pagan 
times. They have been reformed and redeemed 
and filled with a new spirit and purpose, so that 
we have to-day Christian governments. Christian 
laws, the Christian home, a Christian literature, 
Christian art, and Christian education, as well as a 
Christian church. All these are the outcome of 
Christ's life in the world and the lives and labors 
of his followers. Men and women have come 
and gone, creeds and dogmas have been asserted 
and discarded, but these Christian institutions 
remain, and are ever growing and finding new 
adaptations to the needs of the world ; and it is 



TO THE SCHOOL I/I 

interesting to go back and see just what Christ 
taught, and observe to what extent his plea for 
human unselfishness and the brotherhood of man 
have come to permeate our institutions and our 
social life. We find that where once there was 
tyranny and oppression there is now equality and 
justice ; where there was horrible neglect of the 
young, the weak, the poor, the defective, and the 
suffering, there is now the most tender care. 
Not only are streams of charity ever flowing from 
Christian homes and Christian hearts, but there 
is the most thoroughgoing and legally established 
provision by the state or municipality for those 
who are unfortunate either in mind, body, or 
estate. Is an institution dedicated to the alleviat- 
ing and curing of disease any less a Christian 
institution because it exists under the laws of the 
commonwealth and is supported by taxation than 
one sustained by voluntary contributions .'' I sus- 
pect that we are not inclined to think of our penal 
institutions as embodying some part of the Chris- 
tian sentiment and faith of the age ; but if you 
will visit one of our great reformatories and note 
what generous provision is made for the physical, 
moral, yes, and the spiritual welfare of its inmates. 



1/2 THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

you will recognize not only the very highest ex- 
pression of human justice and human sympathy, 
but the operation of a regime that is distinctly 
Christian. 

The few Americans who went, a few years since, 
to attend the International Prison Congress in 
St. Petersburg, were astonished to find in that 
city on the banks of the Neva, a new prison which 
in its hygienic arrangements and its facilities for 
the humane and considerate treatment of prisoners 
was equal to anything in the world. After all 
the hard things that had been said about Russia, 
it was refreshing to know' this ; but still more en- 
couraging was it to think that the epoch-making 
and apostolic crusades of Howard, at the begin- 
ning of the century, in behalf of the jails and 
prisons of England have borne such glorious 
fruit, so that in every Christian land, even the 
lowest criminal is not given over to despair and 
gloom, but, in kind treatment, good books, and 
religious ministration, he feels the same touch 
which, nineteen hundred years ago, cured the 
leper, and hears the same voice that spoke peace 
and comfort to the dying thief. 

A few weeks ago I visited in the city of Colum- 



TO THE SCHOOL 1 73 

bus an institution for feeble-minded children. 
Here more than thirteen hundred young people 
are given a good home, and are trained and edu- 
cated as far as their feeble intellectual powers 
will permit. It is a state institution, and is 
free to all who need its advantages. The director, 
who has become eminent in his field, has devoted 
himself for thirty-five years with consecrated en- 
thusiasm to this work. During this time, although 
dealing constantly with the most unlikely and 
discouraging specimens of young humanity, he 
has not struck a single blow. He and his corps 
of assistants are most assiduous. All that science 
and skill can do in helping and saving those 
afflicted with mental and moral weakness of the 
most repellent sort has been done. Time forbids 
more than the mention of the unwearied patience 
and fidelity of the teachers, the dull and un- 
ending repetition of the simplest mechanical acts 
needed to secure the slightest response in move- 
ment or rhythm ; the marvellous results obtained 
by using music as a tonic, a result which is to be 
seen in the orchestra of fifty young people, the 
older inmates of the place, who render classic 
selections with much precision and feeUng. One 



1/4 THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

cannot witness all this without recalling the mem- 
orable utterance, ** Inasmuch as ye have done it 
unto one of the least of these, ye have done it 
unto me." 

An infirmary in another city, where the poor 
whose sight and hearing is defective or diseased 
may receive treatment free of cost, was recently 
inspected. I can only mention one circumstance 
to indicate the spirit of the place. Upon remark- 
ing to one of the physicians that the institution 
impressed me as epitomizing and realizing the 
very thesis of Christianity, he replied by citing 
an incident that had recently occurred. A little 
child was brought to the infirmary whose eyes 
were affected by a terrible and infectious disease. 
The nurse who was assigned to this case, by 
the most unremitting care, saved the child with 
restored sight, but in doing so became herself in- 
fected, and lost the sight of one eye. Such fidel- 
ity, such vicarious endurance of suffering, needs 
no comment; but we are led to believe that the 
good Samaritan was only a type of thousands 
who, under organized Christian philanthropy of 
the present time, are giving not only of their sub- 
stance, but themselves for the good of others. 



TO THE SCHOOL 1 75 

These two institutions to which I have referred 
are simply examples of those that are doing their 
beneficent work in every state in the Union, yes, 
in every civilized land. They sound no trumpet 
before them, they have no creed or ritual, but 
every day of the 365 they do their work faithfully 
and quietly as if in imitation of the Master him- 
self. It is often the case that those who vote 
money in our legislatures, as well as those who 
found charities, are not enrolled in our churches 
and give little evidence of religious feeling ; but 
the work which they do and the institutions which 
they help to establish are none the less Christian 
because of this fact. Thus, the civic state in its 
various forms of activity, directed to the protection, 
the saving, and the healing of mankind, is most 
expressive of the triumph of Christ in the world 
and of the all-embracing scope of his salvation. 
That narrow conception which makes the saving 
of the individual soul and its future happiness 
the end of religion must give way, and is giving 
way to the larger thought which sees the world 
in all its forces and onward movements redeemed 
and uplifted. Moreover, that morbid pessimism 
which distrusts our government and which quakes 



1/6 THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

and fears because our national genius is assert- 
ing itself in reaching out to the poor and the op- 
pressed beyond the sea, is out of harmony with 
our faith in the progress of the Kingdom of God, 
and with the long-cherished beHef that America 
is to play an important part in that progress. 

And when we hear from the shores of the Baltic 
a message to the nations for universal peace, let us 
trust in its sincerity and be thankful, regarding it 
as a prophecy of the better time that is to come. 

Were we to analyze our laws, we should find that 
they are based upon Christian ideals and are the ripe 
fruits of the Christian era. 

No argument is needed here to prove that the home 
reflects the true state of any community as regards 
Christian culture and progress. It is vastly more 
ancient and more divine than the school, or even the 
Church. Of all institutions, we almost feel that it is 
an end in itself. When Christ said, " In my Father's 
house are many mansions," he struck a note which 
vibrates in every human heart. But it must be said 
in passing that the home is not actually what it is 
ideally ; in fact, it has, in respect to the training of 
children, suffered a certain decadence in modern 
times. While the functions of the school have been 



TO THE SCHOOL 1 77 

greatly enlarged and enriched, parental responsi- 
bility seems to have been weakened, and the 
home care of children has either been attempted by 
proxy or, in the lower grades of society, has been 
neglected altogether. 

The school has come down to us from ancient 
times bringing the best that human experience and 
skill can devise to promote the nurture and educa- 
tion of the young. It is rooted in the far-distant 
past. Egypt, Palestine, Greece, and Rome, all had 
their schools more or less ideal and noble. Through 
the Middle Ages the school endured, for it had the 
fostering care of the Church, which in those days 
was the dominant power. The great religious re- 
formers, Luther, Erasmus, and Melanchthon, were all 
devotees and reformers of education. The growth 
of this country from a few feeble colonies to a mighty 
empire, able to dictate terms to what was once one 
of the mightiest of European nations, has developed 
a great school system providing instruction for more 
than sixteen millions of children. It is by far the 
most costly of all branches of our public service. 
It receives generous support because it is beheved 
to nourish and safeguard our freedom and our 
intelligence. 



178 THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

Briefly, what are some of the things that the 
school does which entitle it to be classed among the 
saving Christian forces of modern times ? It takes 
the children of the nation under its fostering care 
at a very early age and does for them many things 
which the home ought to do but does not do, and 
many other things which the home cannot do. Dur- 
ing those years of life when children are growing 
most rapidly, are most impressive and susceptible to 
every sort of influence, they spend by far the larger 
part of their waking hours in the school and are 
trained and instructed by teachers. Their whole life, 
physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual, receives an 
impress which goes far to determine their usefulness 
and happiness. 

In enumerating the functions of the modern school 
it is easier to say what it is potentially than what it 
is actually. Many communities are educationally 
benighted and have not risen to a state of conscious 
appreciation of the place which the school should 
hold as a moral and civic force. What is needed 
everywhere is a higher intelligence concerning edu- 
cation both as a science and an art and its function 
in character-building. 

Now, the best part of human character is made 



TO THE SCHOOL 1 79 

up of habits. The well-ordered life is, in the main, 
a succession of acts which are more or less habitual 
The modern school, because of its wide range of 
activities and the appeal which it makes to all sides 
of the child's nature, is more influential even than 
the home in estabHshing those habits which give 
poise and stability to character and which determine 
the economy and efficiency of living. Not only 
those activities which exercise and train the senses 
and the motor powers and give the mind capacity 
to apply itself successfully to various tasks, but in 
that larger field of feeling and emotion, in those 
things that make up the joy, the aspirations, and the 
hope of daily life, there is such continuous experi- 
ence in the midst of wholesome and helpful sur- 
roundings, that the child's powers operate along 
the lines of least resistance, and unconsciously he 
becomes fashioned after the standard and pattern 
which are set by the teacher and the school. No-/ 
where else are the claims of right and wrong so con-\ 
stantly and faithfully administered as in the school ; j 
nowhere else is there so strong an appeal for the ' 
best in motive, in effort, and in conduct. This 
appeal comes not only from the teacher, but from 
classmates, and from that social mind and purpose 



l80 THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

which animate the place. This social community 
with its esprit de corps, in which there is daily prac- 
tice in obeying, in cooperating, and in helpful partici- 
pation, is, as has been often pointed out of late, much 
more than a preparation for life ; it is life itself, and 
life at a period when every influence counts at its 
greatest valuation. When we remember how funda- 
mental is a character founded on good habits to 
those higher processes of faith and love and con- 
stancy, we see how closely related is the work of 
the school to that of the Church. 

But the studies pursued are a no less potent 
factor in their relation to the higher life. Each 
is a single phase of truth and all truth is divine. 

The study of Nature in all her marvellous variety 
and beauty, and the discovery of those laws which 
govern all life and which reveal the harmony and 
the unity of the universe, awaken in the child an 
intense admiration and love for what God has 
made, and call forth sentiments of wonder and 
reverence. 

The pursuit of History is no less humanizing 
and impressive. It shows how goodness and error 
have ever been struggling for the mastery ; how 
men and women have fought and toiled to achieve 



TO THE SCHOOL l8l 

what we now enjoy of good government, good laws, 
and freedom. History reveals the supremacy of 
ideas and principles. 

The school gives possession of the instrumentali- 
ties of learning, whereby all literature is at the 
disposal of every youth, and through which he 
enters into the rich inheritance of the race ; and 
in the lives and experiences of those who have 
lived, he finds his larger and better self. Thus he 
is thrilled and inspired with ambition to go out 
and conquer, and die, if need be, for what is true 
and right. 

Those exact sciences which discipline the mind 
and accustom the youth to overcome difficulties, 
contribute no unimportant part to the higher pur- 
pose of education. 

Recently we have seen the introduction into the 
public schools of those manual and domestic arts 
which, on the one hand, acquaint the young with 
the elements of industry and give them the skilful 
use of eye and hand, and on the other hand, ele- 
vate the standard of home-keeping, and give that 
training in economy and thrift which is so much 
needed in our common life. 

These studies have an everyday practical mean- 



1 82 THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

ing. They also lend themselves to the highest 
ends of human existence. Whatever promotes 
health and cheerfulness, either through physi- 
cal training or motor training, expresses itself in 
the higher moral and spiritual welfare ; and the 
use of tools and the homely arts of cooking and 
housekeeping bear a direct relation to vocation, a 
temperate life, and a happy home. 

But our schools are becoming more and more 
the ally of religion, in the fact that Art and Music 
are permitted to make their donation of joy and 
beauty. In many instances the school becomes 
transfigured through the uplifting influence of song 
and the works of great masters when interpreted 
by the sympathetic and inspiring teacher. In 
every age there has been a close relation between 
what is harmonious and beautiful and the religious 
instinct. The Creator has willed that it should be 
so, and it is a long step toward the accomplish- 
ment of the world's redemption when, in our pub- 
lic schools, all those higher tastes and aptitudes 
with which we are endowed receive their proper 
attention and nurture. Those who clamor for a 
practical education live in a narrow world, see only 
half its beauty, and are wanting in the altruistic 



TO THE SCHOOL 183 

sentiment. All studies and school exercises may 
be so perfunctory and mechanical as to permit 
little growth in the higher sentiments; on the 
other hand, they are capable of being pursued 
with a holy enthusiasm and with a consecrated 
zeal that is akin to the joy of heaven. 

The opening of the public schools to every form 
of culture means much for the civilization of com- 
ing years. We agree with President Hyde that 
"knowledge, as distinct from the mere forms and 
symbols of knowledge, must be imparted to the 
child if we are to expect his education to bear the 
civilizing fruits of wisdom, intelligence, virtue, and 
piety. To give him six or eight years of mental 
discipline in the symbols of knowledge without 
opening his mind and heart to the apprehension 
of the real substance of the natural and spiritual 
world, is simply to sharpen his wits and throw him 
back on sensual passions, on vile images and low 
ambitions, for the actual material to exercise his 
sharpened wits upon." The so-called educated crimi- 
nals are not, as a rule, those who have too much 
education, but rather those who have too little of 
the right kind. 

This leads me to speak of the teacher, for the 



1 84 THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

factors already mentioned depend largely upon him, 
and the character of the school as a moral force 
is determined by his quality of mind and heart. 

Who are these thousands of teachers who go 
every morning into the schoolrooms of the nation, 
and to whom you intrust your children ? They are, 
for the most part, Christian workers, members of 
the churches, often leaders in social and Christian 
work. I want to say also that they are mission- 
aries, often showing self-denial and devotion equal 
to that exhibited by those who go to teach in for- 
eign lands. They have to go into the very slums 
of our cities, and receive into their care large num- 
bers of children who come from homes that are 
not homes, who, by inheritance and training, have 
been tainted and corrupted in every possible way. 
If a child is poorly clad, is defective in sight or 
hearing, or is in any way a sufferer, he often re- 
ceives the most prompt and active sympathy; and 
in many cases, homes are visited and the aid of 
parents is solicited to the end that the child may 
be saved and helped. Any one who may take the 
time to visit these child-saving stations to be found 
in all our large cities will see here illustrated the 
very incarnation of Christian principle. He will 



TO THE SCHOOL 1 85 

see many working in this vineyard to whom are 
applicable the Beatitudes of the Master; and I be- 
lieve if Christ himself were to come upon earth 
to-day there is no place where he would feel more 
at home and where he would see so much of his 
own work in progress as in our public schools. 
The injunction, " Suffer little children to come unto 
me," has been answered by the establishment of 
the kindergarten, which is a transition from the 
home to the school, and which initiates school life 
in gentle and loving nurture, and whose gospel is 
being heard by all teachers, so that the spirit of 
the kindergarten is manifesting itself in all schools 
and colleges. 

The notion so current to-day that the school has 
become secularized will, from what has been said, 
be seen to be a fallacy. It is true that in some 
sections of the country it has seemed wise to omit 
the so-called religious exercises, — the reading of 
Scripture and prayer ; a thing which is to be 
greatly regretted. It is most desirable that the 
young should begin the operations of the day with 
suitable acknowledgment of God, and that they 
should be accustomed to hear his Word; but, after 
all, the value of the school as a moralizing and 



1 86 THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

Christianizing force does not reside in such exer- 
cises, which at best occupy but a few moments, 
and which are not always conducted with the rev- 
erence which they deserve. It is rather in the 
atmosphere of conscientious, cheerful service, an 
atmosphere which is directed and inspired by the 
personality of the Christian teacher ; it is in the 
continual performance of duty; in the inspirations 
which come from the studies of the school ; in the 
practice of social virtue and self-denying application. 
Much of the literature now pursued in the schools 
is full of Christian teaching and presents the lofti- 
est ideals of Christian service. It is perhaps wise 
to leave the teaching of the Bible and the applica- 
tion of that teaching to personal faith to the Sun- 
day-school, which has been established for that 
purpose. The Sunday-school is a poor substitute 
for the religious training which was once given in the 
New England home, and in its general value as 
a means of promoting the higher life must be re- 
garded as secondary and inconsiderable when com- 
pared with the day school, — first, because of the 
small amount of time which is devoted to it, sec- 
ondly, because of its comparative inefficiency in 
respect to organization and teaching force. It is, 



TO THE SCHOOL 1 8/ 

however, a positive blessing in our communities, 
as it brings the Bible directly into the conscious- 
ness of the young, who, unfortunately, are seldom 
seen in the Church and do not always hear the 
Scripture read at home. Those who speak of the 
Sunday-school as the nursery of the Church and 
make no mention of the day school in that con- 
nection are lacking in a sense of perspective and 
in the true valuation of forces. 

Now I desire to inquire what relation the Church 
of to-day ought to sustain to this institutional life 
of which we have been speaking, using the term 
" church " in its broadest significance, including all 
who accept the teachings of Christianity. I need 
not recall the fact that, historically, the Church 
has been dominant in public affairs. During the 
Dark Ages, when governments were weaker than 
they are now, when the ideals and judgments of 
men were less sure and steadfast, ecclesiastic au- 
thority governed and guided. Its ambitions and 
purposes have sometimes been ignoble and wrong, 
its methods have been unjusc and cruel; neverthe- 
less, the historic Church has been a saving princi- 
ple in the life of mankind. It has been a light 
shining in darkness ; it has led the world out of 



1 88 THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

the wilderness of barbarism and ignorance into the 
promised land of light and liberty. 

The gradual separation of Church and State, 
while it has removed many occasions for strife 
and discord, and has given opportunity for a freer 
development of civic and social forces, has, at the 
same time, resulted unfortunately for the Church 
itself, considering the influence which it ought to 
exert in modern society. The natural tendency 
of all religions to separatism and exclusiveness has 
led the modern Church to withdraw itself, to give 
undue emphasis to its own organization, its ser- 
vices, and its communion. It has forgotten to a 
certain extent that it is a means and not an end; 
that it is an institution which has grown up because, 
through the cooperation of Christian people, the 
work of bringing the world to God can best be 
carried on. I do not forget how precious are the 
advantages which any church affords its own mem- 
bers by the way of inspiration, of comfort, and care. 
I would not overlook the fact that the Church, 
more than any other force, illustrates the bless- 
edness of giving, not only in the good it accom- 
plishes, but in its reaction upon those who share 
with others. But it is charged that it does not 



TO THE SCHOOL 1 89 

hold a position of supreme leadership in the great 
social movements of the present time and that it 
does not always recognize these movements as the 
real, legitimate on-going of God's Kingdom. It 
may be said of the clergy, as of all who are identi- 
fied with our churches, that we find the greatest 
possible variety of opinion and expression concern- 
ing the work of other forces. Many of our pastors 
are prophets in pointing the way to those condi- 
tions in which human selfishness will be overcome 
and men and women will live, not for themselves 
alone, but for one another. It is apparent, how- 
ever, that the Church as a whole is so hopelessly 
divided into sects and is so largely employed in 
denominational enterprise that it cannot become a 
unifying principle in the civic and social move- 
ments of the day. In any community where it 
has been found desirable to secure the cooperation 
of good people for some worthy public end, it has 
been found necessary to form an organization in- 
dependently of the churches and free from any 
suspicion of denominational influence. 

There is another tendency of long standing and 
one which is coincident with the movement toward 
separation of civic and religious functions ; namely, 



190 THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

to draw a line between things secular and sacred. 
Some of the most beneficent institutions to which 
I have alluded which employ Christian people in 
the most self-sacrificing and devoted efforts for 
their fellow-men are classified as secular, and thus 
a gulf has come to be fixed between the Church 
and the world which is entirely artificial and which 
is a stumbling-block and a snare to multitudes that 
are seeking the higher life. The truth needs to 
be reiterated again and again that this is all God's 
world — " not a sparrow f alleth to the ground with- 
out his notice." His spirit is working not in a 
few hearts, but in all hearts. The Church cannot 
do its best work and cannot commend itself to the 
strongest minds until it allies itself earnestly with 
all those institutions which are doing a saving work 
and which are traceable to the advent of the 
Saviour. 

President Hyde utters a word in his work on 
" Practical Idealism " which emphasizes the view 
I desire to present. He says : " The world of re- 
ligion is not a world apart from those special 
worlds of sense and science, art and humanity, 
institutions and morals. It is rather the larger, 
deeper unity into which all these special aspects 



TO THE SCHOOL I9I 

inhere, to which they all stand related, from which 
they derive their meaning and rationality. The 
world of religion is the world of Absolute Reason, 
the Eternal Love, that includes all finite reality 
and embraces all finite persons." 

And this leads me to say that the Church and 
school are closely related because they are mutually 
dependent. In the words of another : " The Church 
aims at complete and universal regeneration, — com- 
plete for the individual, universal for humanity. 
The entire moral life and character of the indi- 
vidual is cultivated by the Church, since religion 
includes all aims, motives, and conduct." Thus, 
the school and all connected with it, especially 
its teachers, look to the Church for their ideals and 
inspiration. In the Church they find an anchorage. 
They have fellowship with those engaged in other 
forms of service. Faith and hope and courage 
are renewed through preaching, and week by 
week they go to their wearing routine with fresh- 
ness and confidence because of the larger hopes 
which religion inspires. And certainly the Church 
has no larger function than to bless and sweeten 
service of every sort that men and women are 
called upon to perform. Here it is that the 



192 THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

Church finds its sphere of action in the whole of 
human society, and, of all workers, none need 
more or estimate more highly the ministration of 
the Church and the sympathy of human hearts 
than the teachers of youth. 

On the other hand, as has already been intimated, 
the Church greatly needs the school. I doubt if 
it could exist without it. The Christian fathers of 
early times evidently thought so, because every 
church had its school, and in this country, which 
is called upon to receive and assimilate the un- 
trained and unregenerate of all lands, the Church 
would fare but poorly unless the school did its 
saving work. The very foundations of character 
upon which the Church has to build are laid in 
the school, and considering how the shaping of 
life depends upon early nurture, the school seems 
to stand first as an influential means of Christian 
training. 

Does it not seem, therefore, that two institutions 
which are interdependent and which are both work- 
ing for the same general end should be in the 
closest sympathy and should give mutual help and 
cooperation ? The school to-day is undoubtedly a 
mighty force for righteousness, and it would be 



TO THE SCHOOL 1 93 

still more so if it could have the warm sympathy 
and helpful support of the best elements in the 
community. It certainly should be classified more 
distinctly than is now the case as among the 
instrumentalities of Christianity. Certainly children 
are our most precious inheritance. In them are 
centred our hopes as parents and as citizens and 
as those anxious for Christian progress in the com- 
munity. If the atmosphere of the school is not 
Christian and the influences which surround those 
who attend them are not elevating and ennobling, 
there is cause for great anxiety. 

A book entitled "The City Wilderness" has 
just appeared, written by a group of men who 
have lived for several years in a settlement house 
at the South End in Boston. They have made 
a most careful study of the social life of that 
neighborhood. They have scrutinized most care- 
fully all the forces that make for righteousness as 
well as those that are hostile and evil. One of 
the writers, who is a clergyman by profession, 
says emphatically that of all forces at work to 
uplift and Christianize the people of that region, 
the public schools stand first. He says, further- 
more, that the schools receive no direct recognition 
o 



194 THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

by the churches. This may be an extreme case, 
but it points to a general condition. About a 
year ago a clergyman in Boston, whose attention 
was called to this fact, gave the matter immediate 
attention, and to his surprise found that there 
were eighty teachers enrolled as members of his 
church. He very soon devoted one entire Sunday 
to the subject of the public schools, and during 
the week following united with his church in giv- 
ing a reception to those eighty teachers, making 
it an occasion of great pleasure and encouragement 
to them. 

There are two propositions which seem to em- 
body what I have tried to suggest : first, the 
sanctity of institutions, and second, the unity of 
all Christian work. If the Church is to avoid 
that separatism which will lead to its ultimate 
decline and loss of influence, it must plant its 
banners in the world and must unite more and 
more with other forces that are winning victories 
for God and humanity. 

Is it possible that a certain striving for denomi- 
national success and supremacy in our various 
communities has led to an indisposition to com- 
bine or cooperate which almost prevents the carry- 



TO THE SCHOOL 1 95 

ing out of plans for social and constructive work 
in an economical and forceful way ? It is sugges- 
tive, if not pathetic, to observe the attitude of the 
several religious societies which are under the con- 
trol of one religious body, some five or six of 
which societies have their offices in one building 
in Boston. Those who have heard the various 
causes presented by the agents of these societies 
will easily recall the fact that they seldom make 
any allusion to the work which is being done by 
other societies, to say nothing of the efforts put 
forth by other forces. A few months ago I lis- 
tened to a representative of one of these societies 
who most interestingly and with great enthusiasm 
spoke of the work that had been accomplished 
through its instrumentality in two or three New 
England communities which were denominated as be- 
ing " almost Godless," and where a wonderful refor- 
mation was accomplished both for young and old. 
Now any sane and honest person knows that there 
is no such thing as a Godless community in New 
England, and I think one would hesitate a little 
to denominate any portion of God's world as abso- 
lutely Godless. But to say that any portion of 
New England is without several strong and ear- 



196 THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

nest influences at work for the enlightenment and 
Christianizing of the people, and without, here and 
there, sincere and faithful followers of the truth, 
implies a superficial mind and a lack of confidence 
in Divine oversight. This is not a proper time to 
suggest how these societies might be reorganized 
in the interest of economy and efficiency, not to 
say of candor and sincerity ; but it is important to 
see that the Church, as an organization, split up 
as it is into denominational camps, each of which 
in turn is subdivided into competitive forces domi- 
nated more or less by ambition, can hardly be 
expected to take the highest place of leadership 
in the great regenerative movements of our time. 
Said the Master, " I came that ye might have life 
and that ye might have it more abundantly." 
There is no institution that better fulfils what is 
impHed in this definition of Christ's purpose than 
the public schools of America. They have many 
faults and are capable of being far more potent 
than they have been if they may but have the 
watchful care, the sincere sympathy, the active 
cooperation, and the faithful oversight of wise and 
cultured people. 

Here, then, we have two great Christian institu- 



TO THE SCHOOL 1 97 

tions, both engaged in training, uplifting, and sav- 
ing those who come under their influence. Their 
work lies along different lines, but their general 
aim is the same. They are mutually dependent 
and need the aid and support of each other. How 
can they best render this assistance .-' In the first 
place, there should be a clear recognition on the 
part of each of what the other is attempting and 
accomplishing. Many times in the past in differ- 
ent portions of the country, the Church has stood 
for the schools when they have been attacked, and 
words spoken from the pulpit have been influen- 
tial in their defence. Moreover, teachers should 
ever be loyal to all that the Church stands for, 
and all instruction given in the schools should be 
reverent in tone and not lacking in moral and 
spiritual quality. It is not enough that the Church 
should be friendly to the schools, but it is neces- 
sary that teachers, parents, and pupils should know 
that there is this friendliness and that the Church 
is sympathetically watchful and observant in all 
that is done in the name of education. This will, 
in itself, give a new impulse to teaching ; a deeper 
earnestness and a truer consecration will animate 
the school and make it more truly a Christian 



198 THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO THE SCHOOL 

force. Institutions, as well as individuals, grow 
and become strong according as they ally them- 
selves with other forces and cordially unite in 
doing any work that may lead to the betterment 
of mankind. 

While the Church as an organization cannot 
wisely attempt to interfere in school management, 
it may be sympathetic, and may voice that broad 
and enlightened conception of education that sees 
in it great possibilities for redemption and achieve- 
ment. And the people of God in their individual 
capacity should never forget their responsibility 
toward Christian education. As parents, as citi- 
zens, and as persons of faith, they should cooper- 
ate so that every teacher in the land may thank 
God and take courage. 



EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 



EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 

The relation of education to crime has usually- 
been considered on far too narrow lines. The at- 
tempt has been made over and over again to prove 
that ordinary school instruction is a direct specific 
for crime; that the illiterate are largely criminals, 
while the intelligent are law-abiding and virtuous. 
It has not been difficult, of course, to overthrow 
these arguments ; for the same statistics upon which 
they were based, by a different manipulation, have 
been made to do duty in destroying them. More 
than this, in much of the discussion of this sort 
there is wanting any adequate recognition of the 
real essence of crime or the almost purely ijitellec- 
tual character of education as it has been carried 
on in the past. 

It has been forgotten that criminal aptitudes, 
like tendencies to disease or insanity, are largely 
physiological, and have tainted the blood and re- 
acted upon the nerves of a long ancestry. Another 



202 EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 

universal principle has been overlooked; namely, 
that any organization tends to build itself up from 
the germ after an ancestral pattern, and that the 
modifiability of that type is brought about only 
under special nurture and environment applied at 
an early stage of growth. The cruelty, baseness, 
and crime of past ages are reflected, not only in 
history, but in the wrong-doing of the present 
time. Evil instincts, passions, aptitudes, are woven 
into the fibre of the nerve substance. They taint 
the blood and are stamped upon the countenance. 
Whole families are so degraded that mental and 
moral recovery seems impossible. The Whitechapel 
districts of our great cities contain a population 
that is more homogeneous than the Back Bays or 
Fifth Avenues. The turbid stream of poverty and 
ignorance, of intemperance and immorality, has per- 
sistently coursed its way down through the gen- 
erations of the past, and to-day often threatens to 
overflow and carry ruin to the existing order of 
things. 

Seeing, then, that tendencies to crime are part 
of the legacy to human nature from a remote 
past, and are hence constitutional, it is not difficult 
to understand why education has failed as a quick 



EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 2O3 

and complete remedy for them. If we consider, 
also, the large catalogue of crimes caused imme- 
diately by intemperance, we find that education 
has not been of a sort to prevent them. 

The educational methods of the past have been 
almost exclusively directed to the culture of the 
intellect. This has been true of elementary teach- 
ing both in this country and in Europe; it has, 
to a large extent, also, been true of the colleges. 
To memorize, to recite, to reason and demonstrate, 
have been the chief aims. Prior to the last few 
years, little attention was given to bodily or mental 
health. The school was often as unsanitary as 
the poorest home. No attempt was made to bring 
the nervous organism of the child into harmony 
with his environment, and hence, to promote cheer- 
fulness, spontaneity, and vigor. It was usually a 
system of mental tasks rigidly appUed, whose 
direct tendency was often to make the sick more 
sick, the morbid more morbid, and the vicious 
more vicious. The doctrine of the "survival of 
the fittest " had free course. Those only who had 
inherited physical and intellectual vigor endured 
the strain and rose to success in life. There was 
nothing in the system that dealt heroically with 



204 EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 

human disease and evil in its germinal forms, or 
that recognized the great laws of natural selection 
and environment that operate in the breeding and 
rearing of children, as well as in the culture of 
plants and animals. Many a parent has looked 
with pride upon his well-bred horse, kept in a box- 
stall, paying strict attention to his food, exercise, 
supply of light and air, while his child, delicate, it 
may be, has been sent to a school where every prin- 
ciple of hygiene, moral and physical, was violated. 
Again, assuming that education has been able 
largely to overcome ignorance, it has not therefore 
been a cure for crime. Says Herbert Spencer : 
" Ignorance and crime are not cause and effect : 
they are coincident results of the same cause. The 
fact is that scarcely any connection exists between 
morality and the discipline of ordinary teaching. 
Mere culture of the intellect (for education as 
usually conducted amounts to little more) is hardly 
at all operative upon conduct. Creeds pasted upon 
the memory, good principles learned by rote, 
lessons in right and wrong, will not eradicate 
vicious propensities, though people, in spite of 
their experience as parents and citizens, persist in 
hoping they will." 



EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 205 

Bernard Perez, whose exhaustive study of the 
" First Three Years of Childhood " entitles his 
views to respect, goes even farther than this. He 
says : " The business of education is much more 
concerned with the habits that children acquire, 
and with their wills, which are also developed by 
habitual practice, than with the development of 
their moral conscience. The latter is the blossom 
which will be followed by fruit; but the former 
are the roots and branches." It is, then, with 
the roots of life and character and the soil in 
which they grow that we are chiefly concerned in 
estimating the value of education upon those 
morally defective. 

Before closing this discussion, I shall attempt 
to show that education bids fair to be so changed 
in the immediate future as to become more efficient 
as a corrective of evil tendencies. At present, I 
desire to speak of educational methods and results 
in the past as affecting crime. While it must be 
apparent that education has not usually addressed 
itself to the will and the emotions, and has been 
blind to the truth that morals as well as mind 
depend upon health and body, it can still be shown 
that schools have done more than all other agencies 



206 EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 

during the past two centuries to improve the condi- 
tions under which civiHzed man Hves. While they 
have not proved a prompt remedy for crime, they 
have promoted a general intelligence that has been 
able to deal with it more humanly and wisely. 

Two great forces, inductive thought and the 
democratic spirit, have been at once the cause and 
effect of education. By the first, the human mind, 
freed from its fetters, has penetrated the secrets 
of nature, has conquered time and space, and has 
achieved in one hundred years greater social and 
industrial progress than has been seen in any ten 
centuries of the world's former history. 

The spirit of democracy has been no less potent 
in recasting human society and caUing forth the 
energies of men in great enterprises tending to 
comfort, convenience, and health. On the Ameri- 
can continent especially, the possibility of success- 
ful self-government has been proven beyond all 
question. The same doctrine is working its way 
in Europe, and will gradually tend to curb the 
most autocratic of rulers and soften the restraints 
which harass the subject and thwart his enter- 
prises. 

Schools of learning, from the lowest to the 



EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 207 

highest, have been the channels through which 
these regenerating influences have worked their 
way to the minds of men. Whenever a child has 
been taught to read, he has been intrusted with a 
key wherewith he can unlock the great storehouse 
of knowledge. History and literature become his 
teachers. He rises out of himself, and thinks the 
thoughts of others. He knew before that life was 
a struggle ; but he sees now that mankind has been 
struggling on for ages and that to the sum total 
of human toil and pain he is indebted for what he 
is, and that he will be to a certain degree respon- 
sible for the future of his race. God's revelation 
becomes his possession, in the pages of which are 
revealed both his own weakness and depravity and 
the Deity perfect in power and goodness. 

In the long march from the savagery of six 
thousand years ago to the civilization of the pres- 
ent, progress was measurably slow until schools 
began their work of mental elevation. 

That education has been indirectly effective in 
preventing crime can be safely affirmed. The 
lighting of our city streets, the scientific appli- 
ances employed by the police, the use of chemistry 
and electricity in the detection of crime, and the 



208 EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 

better administration of justice, are but incidents 
of the improved moral and social condition which 
education has produced. 

The study of nature has tended to soften human 
feelings and to promote a humanity that is quick 
to sympathize with weakness and suffering. Every 
hospital, with its trained attendants and its appli- 
ances for soothing pain and thwarting disease, 
every retreat for the insane, schools for those de- 
fective in sight, speech, or the imbecile — all these 
witness to the intelligent and earnest philanthropy 
of our time. Even dumb animals are protected 
from cruelty by law. Society, aroused and on the 
alert, is guarding the pubhc health from every con- 
taminating influence ; and, while science is attack- 
ing the germs of disease with marvellous results, 
we hear of an " elixir of life " that can make the 
aged young and the weak strong. 

John Stuart Mill defines education as "whatever 
helps to shape the human being, to make the indi- 
vidual what he is, or to hinder him from being 
what he is not." Accepting this very broad defi- 
nition, and observing the enlightened condition of 
the civihzed world and the security in which we 
live, we are able to award to education in general, 



EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 209 

and to the public school system in particular, a 
large measure of credit. 

If our jails and prisons are as full as ever, we 
know that many are deterred from evil-doing by 
modern facilities for detecting and punishing crime. 
If intemperance is still defiantly assaulting life and 
character in every grade of society, and is the direct 
agent of more crime than all other causes consid- 
ered, we still know that a moral sentiment is being 
developed that will eventually place this monster 
evil in subjection and protect society from its 
ravages. 

The fact that we have been adding annually to 
our population upward of half a million of for- 
eigners, many of whom are not in sympathy with 
our institutions, but are bred in pauperism, discon- 
tent, and possibly in crime, is often overlooked 
when criminal statistics are cited by pessimistic 
writers. But there is no grander proof of the effi- 
cacy of free schools than is seen in the capacity 
of our country for receiving and assimilating this 
mass of material without serious detriment. The 
increase of crime may be partially explained by 
other causes, as, for example, the rapid growth of 
cities, the unsettled condition of our industrial sys- 



2IO EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 

tern, the rapid accumulation of wealth, all tending 
to prove that the subject of crime and its causes 
is very complex, and presents many problems for 
science and philanthropy to solve. 

But, whichever way we turn, we have to face 
one sublime fact, — these United States, with all 
the dangers to which they have been exposed, re- 
sulting from rapid growth, immigration, and intem- 
perance, have severally and unitedly evinced a 
strength and stability that have excited the world's 
admiration ; and this phenomenon can be explained 
only in the intelligence of the people through the 
common schools. If our education in the past has 
not been powerful as a corrective of crime, it has 
certainly produced a high average of intelligence, 
and has fortified the public mind and conscience in 
its attempt to deal with wrong-doing promptly and 
wisely. 

With this hasty and somewhat superficial view 
of the relation which education has borne to crime 
hitherto, I propose to consider rather carefully the 
prospects for the diminution of crime in the future 
through educational means. 

The hosts of evil now pressing upon us are 
vast and threatening. Intemperance, immigration, 



EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 211 

heredity, ignorance, poverty, and insane, nihilistic 
tendencies are present in great strength. Now, 
granting that the pulpit and the press are efficient 
as preventive agents by their constant appeals to 
right and warfare upon wrong, and by their efforts 
in disseminating truth, we must look to the schools, 
public and private, to so counteract and cure moral 
disease in its incipient forms as to afford to all our 
youth a fundamental training in habitual morality. 
In previous remarks, I have laid considerable 
stress upon heredity and the principle of persist- 
ence of type, so well understood by the natural- 
ist; but there is another truth of equal educational 
value in this connection, and that is the exceed- 
ing plasticity of the infant child, and the capacity 
of his nature for modification through proper train- 
ing and environment. Children born under the 
worst conditions, if transplanted at an early age 
to a good home, form moral habits that prove 
their safeguard through life. 

The schools are capable of doing a great correc- 
tive and curative work. The educational reforms 
instituted during the past ten years, and now being 
vigorously pushed, all look to this result. The 
assertion may sound paradoxical, but the schools 



212 EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 

of the future are to be more corrective of evil be- 
cause less penal and less repressive than in the 
past. Strong, healthy growth, moral, physical, and 
intellectual, leading up to honest citizenship, is to 
be the real end and aim. 

The new education, whose principles are already 
well diffused, and whose sole purpose is to build 
character on solid foundations, calls for a more 
generous policy on the part of the State and 
greater skill and discrimination in applying educa- 
tional means. 

First, greater attention must be paid to school 
hygiene, including both health conditions of build- 
ings and those dangers growing out of the nervous 
tendencies and defective constitutions of so many 
children. The State cannot afford to furnish an 
education that ignores the laws of health and fails 
to promote physical stamina. The ancient Greeks 
exposed their weak and defective children, and so 
spared them a life of suffering and unhappiness. 
Is the civilized State of to-day doing better than 
they, when it sends its youth out to battle with 
life unschooled in the care of the body, or, it may 
be, weak and puny, from lack of physical culture.'' 

A recent writer says : " Physical infirmities and 



EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 213 

deficiencies, resulting from the disregard of the com- 
monest rules of muscular development and bodily 
perfection, must have their reflex in the spiritual 
and moral character of the victim. Strong, active, 
physical health is rarely associated with moral per- 
versity in the rightly educated man or woman," 

Decided indications of progress in this depart- 
ment are to be seen. Hygiene has become a pre- 
scribed study; gymnastics and military drill are 
somewhat in vogue ; and in several cities physi- 
cians are employed as inspectors of schools with 
regard to health. 

The second demand is the adoption in our cities 
of the kindergarten as a part of the public school 
system, especially for all neglected children and 
those whose breeding and environment are likely 
to result in criminal habits. I wish to emphasize 
this point. It is most vital to the question we are 
considering. If the State leaves the children born 
in the slums to run wanton during the first five, 
six, or seven years of life, until every form of 
wickedness and evil is automatic in their thought 
and feeling, she must expect to reap a harvest of 
crime. 

The kindergarten has been found to possess this 



214 EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 

distinct advantage over all other forms of infant 
training, — that children, if taken at three years of 
age from the worst surroundings, can be reclaimed. 
The plastic nature of the child responds readily to 
love and kindness. As a new environment is re- 
vealed to him, so a new set of affections and im- 
pulses is awakened. The aim of the kindergarten 
is thoroughly normal. The systematic development 
of the child power, the arousing of self-activity, the 
culture of the feelings, the establishment of the 
practical virtues, the kindling of aesthetic, moral, 
and social sentiments, — these are all present in 
the true kindergarten. It may be said, in passing, 
that this training is the best possible foundation 
for the school proper. It has been well said that 
"solicitude for children is one of the signs of a 
growing civilization." Let this sentiment material- 
ize in legislation that shall zealously rescue from 
danger all those unfortunates who are inevitably 
destined to be an expense to the State. It is far 
cheaper to apply some simple remedy in the earlier 
stages of an illness than to become a confirmed in- 
valid and wage a lifelong struggle with disease. 
A school training, engrafted on a character that is 
fixed in bad habits, is as unsafe as was the dam 



EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 21 5 

at Johnstown, with its flimsy foundations and a 
mountainous mass of water pressing against it. 
Five dollars a year spent in giving a child kinder- 
garten training may save the State ten thousand 
dollars in trials and imprisonments, to say nothing 
of the economical advantages of having each and 
every man a supporter of the laws rather than 
a source of moral contamination, a producer of 
wealth rather than a destroyer of it. 

Third, we must leaven the entire curriculum with 
that most effective of all moral correctives, manual 
or industrial training. While I prefer to argue this 
question on the broadest educational grounds, time 
will only permit me at this time to emphasize 
the moral element that belongs to all intelligent 
labor. So much has been written on this topic 
that I need recall only a few well-known facts. 
Wherever mental and manual exercises are blended, 
there is manifest a moral earnestness, a growth in 
manly and womanly character. This is no theory. 
The results now seen in many schools and colleges 
testify to the truth. Wherever, in the public schools 
of this country, boys are trained in the use of tools, 
or the girls are taught sewing and cooking, the chil- 
dren from neglected homes seem to experience a 



2l6 EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 

change in conduct and ambition. Hope for the 
first time dawns upon their lives ; and they become 
missionaries at home, setting order, comfort, and 
happiness in the place of squalor and wretched- 
ness. 

The system so extensively adopted in England, 
and partially begun in this country, of gathering 
dependent children into industrial schools, where 
the useful arts are pursued in connection with a 
vigorous schooling of the mental and moral powers, 
has convinced many observers that France has 
builded wisely in constructing a system of national 
education with the industrial element present in 
every grade. A most striking evidence of the re- 
forming power of diversified industry is found in 
the recent history of several of our reformatories. 
At Elmira, particularly, industrial education has 
shown its potency in helping to establish character 
upon a healthy basis. If the adult man, mature in 
habit and addicted to vice, can be educated into 
integrity, what may not be accomplished with our 
youth if taken at the proper stage ? 

That several states have framed laws empower- 
ing courts, under certain limitations, to pass inde- 
terminate sentences on all criminals, means simply 



EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 21/ 

that the time is coming when a criminal will be 
released only as he gives evidence of reformation. 
In other words, he must be morally and indus- 
trially educated. What ought to have been done 
in the common school, under our compulsory laws, 
must now be done in the prison at vastly greater 
expense. 

In schools where negroes and Indians are edu- 
cated, the results of combining manual and intel- 
lectual training are most significant. It is freely 
acknowledged, by those who have studied the prob- 
lem most thoroughly, that the only hope of ele- 
vating the Indian and the African lies in a sort 
of industrial reformation. Until recently Christian 
missions have been far less successful in Africa 
than the Mohammedan, mainly because the latter 
have introduced into the life of the savage a sort 
of industrialism that served as a civilizing factor. 
Evidence that the industrial and domestic arts as 
Christianizing forces are stronger even than preach- 
ing is bound to give color to missionary enterprise 
in the future. Have we not, then, abundant proof 
that this element, which operates so powerfully in 
the enlightenment of the heathen and the savage, 
and in the reformation of the vicious and defec- 



2l8 EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 

tive, should be a constant and somewhat promi- 
nent factor in public education ? 

All this experience with criminals and with the 
savage races shows us that what science has 
taught concerning evolution and the development 
of species must be applied in education, as well 
as in the nurture of plant and animal life, before 
the evil nature will shake off the rudiments of bar- 
barism which still cling to it. Self-activity is the 
law of healthful life and growth in every organism. 
An unused muscle is a moral infirmity. Every 
morbid nerve is an invitation to crime. When the 
youth is bred to honest industry, there is no con- 
gestion, no bilious insurrection, but rather free 
circulation to every member of blood purified in 
God's air and sunshine. Every nerve-cell is full 
of healthy life. All new growth of tissue under 
these conditions tends to make Dr. Jekyll stronger 
than Mr. Hyde, and to preserve a balance of power 
on the side of honest endeavor. 

Finally, education will become a curative of crime 
only as all teaching is subordinated to the one 
central aim of developing and establishing char- 
acter. The cultivation of the body, the intellect, 
and the will must find a unity in the idea of 



EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 219 

moral completeness. All children must be reached. 
They must be reached early. Spontaneity and self- 
activity must be fostered at every step. Through 
drawing, designing, and construction, accuracy, in- 
tegrity, and love of the beautiful are to be incul- 
cated. The study of Nature in all her wonderful 
forms, with countless lessons of God's creative 
skill and infinite love and care, is rapidly assert- 
ing its claims as the true subject-matter of teach- 
ing. In other words, less study of books and more 
of the world around us is needed to train the eye 
to see, the ear to hear, and to fit our youth for 
practical life. 

Self-government is the corner-stone of this re- 
public, and is destined to animate all mankind in 
the not distant future. The school must build 
character upon this foundation. The weak and 
defective are to acquire strength by self-control 
and patient endeavor. 

While recognizing the unpleasant fact that edu- 
cation struggling with other moral agents has failed 
to cure crime, I have tried to show that it has 
created those moral and social conditions that are 
favorable to its restriction and suppression. More- 
over, in view of the reform which is now affect- 



220 EDUCATION AS A CURE FOR CRIME 

ing all educational methods, I do not hesitate to 
predict that, in the better future toward which 
we are hastening, we shall see these methods 
applied in universal and successful child-saving 
work. 



THE CORRELATION OF EDUCA- 
TIONAL FORCES IN THE COM- 
MUNITY 



THE CORRELATION OF EDUCA- 
TIONAL FORCES IN THE COM- 
MUNITY 

The energies of school supervision have hitherto 
been largely employed in perfecting the organi- 
zation of teaching and in bringing it into true 
pedagogic form. We have treated the school as 
though it were sufficient unto itself and somewhat 
independent of all other factors. I believe the 
time has come when we may wisely give more 
attention to the utilization of forces outside of the 
school to the end that community life and effort 
may be richer, better directed, more economically 
employed, and that the schools may gain the com- 
manding position that rightfully belongs to them. 
Henry Ward Beecher uttered a great truth when 
he said that in America there is not one single 
element of civilization that is not made to depend 
in the end upon public opinion. I care not how 
skilfully and thoroughly school supervision does 

223 



224 THE CORRELATION OF EDUCATIONAL FORCES 

its work, unless the interest and confidence of 
the people are enlisted so that they believe in the 
value of what is done, much of the labor goes 
for nothing. There may be much of indifference 
and apathy, but there is never strict neutrality in 
public sentiment. A community that is not thor- 
oughly committed to a broad educational policy 
and active in sustaining it is likely to assume an 
unfriendly attitude, if the slightest provocation 
arises. Much energy has been wasted in trying 
to perfect a school system while the people were 
ignorant of the motives and aims that animated 
its directors and were incapable of understanding 
and approving the methods employed. There are 
plenty of communities that have never yet been 
reached by the spirit of modern education. They 
are like those broad stretches of thickly populated 
country in India or China where, here and there, 
a single missionary is trying to break the ice of 
paganism with scarcely any perceptible success. 
In such cases the schools are as good as they 
can be under the circumstances, but there is no 
enthusiasm concerning them and the well-to-do 
people, knowing nothing of their excellences, send 
their children to private schools often of an inferior 



IN THE COMMUNITY 225 

character. There are many instances where the 
conditions are right for the development of an edu- 
cational spirit in the community, but those in 
charge make no effort whatever to bring about 
this most desired end. Some years ago a young 
man was called to take charge of a group of 
schools in one of our pleasant New England bor- 
oughs. He had his own ideas and carried them 
out. He made no study of the community to see 
what synthesis could be made of existing forces. 
He enjoyed the privacy of his own room better 
than the exactions of social life. He made few 
acquaintances, and few people knew him or cared 
for him. At length a single indiscretion on his 
part in connection with a case of discipline aroused 
the hostility of the local newspaper. Having no 
public opinion in his favor, he lost ground rapidly, 
was soon compelled to resign, and the good work 
he had done in the schools went for nothing. I 
venture to assert that this is a type of many cases 
occurring all over the country, which give to edu- 
cational supervision the character of instability and 
Bohemianism. 

Moreover, the failure to work constructively for 
healthy public opinion is not the only shortcoming 
Q 



226 THE CORRELATION OF EDUCATIONAL FORCES 

of our craft. The apparent inability of some men 
and women to recognize the unity of all moral and 
social aims, and to justly value the work of forces 
other than the one to the service of which they 
are especially committed, is a difficulty no less seri- 
ous than the one already indicated. Herbert Spen- 
cer, in one of the closing chapters of his work on 
" Illustrations of Universal Progress," calls attention 
to the fact " that the different parts of the social 
organism, like the different parts of an individual 
organism, compete for nutriment and severally 
obtain more or less of it according as they are 
discharging more or less duty." Unless the several 
agencies which operate in community life for the 
improvement of the conditions of living and the 
elevation of society are made conscious of each 
other's claims, this sort of competition, to which 
reference has been made, is likely to work harm 
in preventing some forces from achieving all of 
which they are capable. 

Let us consider briefly the principal factors that, 
speaking broadly, contribute to education in the 
community. They are the Church, the home, the 
school, the public library, the newspaper, the art 
museum, where there is one, and the civil state 



IN THE COMMUNITY 22/ 

with its laws protecting life and property, its pro- 
visions for public health and convenience, and its 
orderly conduct of all civic affairs. We should 
mention, also, the opportunity of hearing good 
music, the operations of commerce, the daily mira- 
cles of science as applied in mechanics, and elec- 
tricity, securing rapid travel, communication, etc. 
Now, in the general work of education, each of 
these forces has its own peculiar task. It does 
what none of the other forces can do. The 
Church, by its constant appeals to the higher 
spiritual nature, by consecrated self-denial, lofty 
example, and helpful ministrations must be re- 
garded as a mighty educational factor. The pres- 
ence all over the Christian world of imposing 
church edifices, conceived in the highest types of 
architectural art, with their towers pointing upward, 
is simply the visible expression of those deeper 
sentiments that are inspired and developed through 
the ministry of the Church. 

The home, with its tender parental nurture, its 
solicitous care and wise guidance, contributes a 
fundamental element to education. Especially is 
it true when an air of culture pervades the home, 
that it often becomes, as Holland describes it. 



228 THE CORRELATION OF EDUCATIONAL FORCES 

"The sweetest type of Heaven." What it does 
no other power can do. Deprive a child of a 
good home and you blast the very flower of his 
opportunities. It was observed in connection with 
a series of articles by eminent persons published 
a few years since, on " How I was educated," 
that each and every writer paid a high tribute to 
the potency of the home as a factor in his own 
education. 

The school holds a central place. More than 
the Church or even the home, it moralizes the 
child, and establishes his character upon the foun- 
dations of good habits. Its regular routine, con- 
tinued day after day, and the constant appeals 
made to the best efforts of the child make the 
school preeminent among educational forces. 

The public library, or people's university, as it 
has been called, is a reservoir of knowledge and 
inspiration for the entire community. Rightly sup- 
ported by the Church, the home, and the school 
it supplements them all in their efforts to elevate 
and refine society. Without speaking in detail of 
other educational forces, it seems strange that devo- 
tees of any of these agencies are blind to the rela- 
tive importance of the others, as well as to the 



IN THE COMMUNITY 229 

fact that the highest success of any of them depends 
upon the support it gets from the others. 

I shall venture to refer again to the Church, in 
this connection, in the way of mild criticism. Mr. 
Brooks Adams, in a recent monograph on the " Law 
of Civilization and Decay," finds that "the funda- 
mental idea in rehgion is fear, which, by stimulat- 
ing the imagination, creates the behef in an invisible 
world and ultimately develops a priesthood." To 
such an extent have the world religions taken 
advantage of this principle that their history has 
been a record of tyranny and darkness. Under 
the same influence the light of Christianity became 
so obscured that the work of freeing the human 
mind from its slavery has been only partially be- 
gun; and, even in this most democratic of coun- 
tries, whose foundations were laid by those seeking 
religious freedom, we often find the Church arro- 
gating to itself rights and powers which it does 
not possess, and pretending to accompHsh results 
which it never has nor ever will accomplish. The 
minister too often forgets that the pulpit is a means 
to an end, and that its highest function is to dig- 
nify and sweeten human service of every sort and 
establish the brotherhood of man and the unity 



230 THE CORRELATION OF EDUCATIONAL FORCES 

of all work for the cause of truth, to the end that 
there may be mutual cooperation. Only recently 
one of our most liberally minded clergymen, in 
naming to a body of young people the benefits 
that have come through the Christian dispensation, 
made no mention of the Christian school. Too 
often schools are entirely omitted in prayers from 
the pulpit or in pastoral ministrations. It is be- 
cause of the influential position of the Church that 
I feel compelled to emphasize this omission. It 
seems to me to be entirely opposed to the spirit 
of Him who came upon earth and went about 
doing good. The love of the Master for children 
is unquestioned. I have often thought that, were 
he to be among us again, he would be seen quite 
as often in our schools as in our churches. 

No less lack of cooperation has often existed 
between the home and the school. Here are two 
forces operating to the same end, yet often so 
antagonistic that the impressible child is trained in 
ways of discourtesy and disloyalty, his school life 
is made wretched and his childhood is clouded. 
Dissension in the home is bad enough, but strife 
between teacher and parent is fatal to those finer 
results for which the home and school should aim. 



IN THE COMMUNITY 23 1 

Is it not about time that the traditional schism be- 
tween parent and teacher be bridged over? Should 
we be contented with the relation of armed neu- 
trality which so often exists ? The importance of 
the issue at stake demands mutual sympathy and 
cooperation. The teacher greatly needs the re- 
spect, the confidence, and the esteem of the parent. 
He needs information concerning the child's home 
life, his tastes, habits, etc. The parent, on the 
other hand, should have the frankest statements 
from the teacher concerning the child's interests as 
displayed in the schoolroom. Through such con- 
ference teacher and parent are able to supplement 
the efforts of each other. 

There is something to be said about the place 
the schools should hold in the opinions and good 
wishes of the people. As the most influential of 
the forces in education, as the prime factor in de- 
termining the civic intelligence of the community, 
they should be held in high honor and esteem. 
They should be regarded with generous feeling and 
interest, and every citizen should feel a personal 
obligation to contribute to their efficiency. The 
late President Garfield once said that "the best 
system of education is that which draws its chief 



232 THE CORRELATION OF EDUCATIONAL FORCES 

support from the voluntary efforts of the commu- 
nity," It is worth a good deal to have the school 
taxes paid cheerfully, but we want something more 
than a passive interest. This brings me to the 
point of announcing two principles that deserve to 
be recognized everywhere. First, the social and 
educational forces of the community should be 
brought into correlation. There should be the 
fullest mutual readiness to cooperate. Second, the 
school, better than any other factor, may become a 
centre for this correlation. It exists for all the 
people, is unhampered by creed or sect, and at the 
same time stands for the very highest aims to 
which human efforts can be directed. In an article 
written for the Atlantic MontJily of January, 1896, 
Horace E. Scudder urges the propriety of making 
the schoolhouse the centre of community life and 
concludes by declaring that the school system holds 
the key to the situation in any problem we may 
encounter when considering the momentous subject 
of American civiHzation. There is little that is new 
in these propositions. Indeed, there has been a 
growing recognition of their importance during the 
last few years. The so-called institutional church 
is an attempt to utilize various educational forces 



IN THE COMMUNITY 233 

to supplement preaching so that we often find now, 
organized under the roof of one church, various 
means for physical, intellectual, and moral cultiva- 
tion. The same idea expresses itself in missionary- 
endeavor, but the most significant illustrations are 
those local societies that have been formed in vari- 
ous cities with the avowed purpose of helping on 
the cause of education. Some years ago the Pub- 
lic Education Society of Philadelphia began a 
career which has resulted in many educational re- 
forms. In fact, it is said that the establishment of 
the kindergarten, the reorganization of the school 
system with the employment of a superintendent 
of schools, the introduction of manual training, and 
the broadening of all courses of study have been 
the indirect results of the labors of this society. A 
similar organization in New York has enlisted the 
active assistance of the influential citizens of the 
city, some of whom are social leaders. What ap- 
peared to many to be almost a hopeless under- 
taking has already borne excellent fruit in the 
well-known reform measures which it is to be hoped 
are the beginning of a thorough reformation of the 
school system of that city. A striking instance of 
what a local society may do is seen in the work 



234 THE CORRELATION OF EDUCATIONAL FORCES 

accomplished for the Boston schools in a single 
year by the Association of Collegiate Alumnae act- 
ing in cooperation with the officers of the Insti- 
tute of Technology and certain school officials. 
There was undertaken a thorough investigation of 
the schoolhouses of Boston to determine their con- 
dition with respect to health and sanitation. A 
vigorous report, made at the conclusion of the task, 
has resulted in a thorough awakening of public in- 
terest on this subject and will ultimately result in 
larger appropriations for the corrections of defects 
pointed out. 

One of the best illustrations of social coordina- 
tion is seen in the Twentieth Century Club of Bos- 
ton, which has been in existence a little more than 
three years. The avowed purpose of the club is 
" to promote a finer public spirit and a better social 
order." Among its founders were such men as 
PhiUips Brooks, Dr. Edward Everett Hale, and 
Dr. George A. Gordon. Its membership of three 
hundred includes about an equal representation of 
lawyers, ministers, journalists, artists, teachers, and 
business men. Among these are many names well 
known as philanthropists and social reformers. 
Under the skilful management of its president, 



IN THE COMMUNITY 235 

Mr. Edwin D. Mead, its meetings, which are held 
on alternate Wednesday evenings, have presented 
a remarkable instance of a perfectly free platform 
where any subject — social, religious, or political — 
could be discussed with the utmost candor and in 
the best spirit. A lunch is served to the members 
of the club at its rooms on Saturday, after which 
some topic of living interest is brought forward 
and a most interesting comparison of views follows. 
It is generally recognized by the members of the 
club that its purposes are distinctly educational, 
and the interests of schools and colleges have been 
given a prominent place in its deliberations. It 
is impossible to estimate the good that such an 
organization may accomplish. The fact that 
woman's clubs throughout the country are mak- 
ing public schools a special object of study, and 
that at Louisville the Federation passed resolutions 
recommending such study, is full of significance 
and promise. 

The Brookline Education Society has been suc- 
cessful in developing a strong community interest 
in education and in helping to elevate the standard 
of the local schools. So many inquiries concern- 
ing the nature and results of their movements have 



236 THE CORRELATION OF EDUCATIONAL FORCES 

been received that another chapter will be devoted 
to it. 

President Eliot, at the close of twenty-five years 
as president of Harvard University, when asked 
what had been his leading aim, replied, " To secure 
cooperation." There is no word in our language 
more highly charged with what is vital to human 
destiny. St. Paul the Apostle pleaded for it. The 
warp and woof of what we call modern civilization 
is made up of cooperation. We want far more 
of industrial cooperation, of religious cooperation, 
and of educational cooperation. The mission of 
the public school is closely related to all forms 
of social work. The methods found most success- 
ful in dealing with the defective, the vicious, and 
the neglected classes are such as have been tried 
advantageously in the school. On the other hand, 
the methods, aims, and humanitarian spirit of the 
social reformer are essential to the life of every 
good school. Hence it is readily seen that school 
supervision has something more to do than to 
grade classes, prepare courses of study, and see 
that principles of teaching are carried out. Teach- 
ers must become conscious of the commanding 
importance of the school as a social factor in- 



IN THE COMMUNITY 237 

fluencing every form of human endeavor, reflect- 
ing its spirit and aims in the life and conduct 
of the people, and, in turn, drawing inspiration 
and help from every department of the world's 
activity. 



THE BROOKLINE EDUCATION 
SOCIETY AND ITS WORK 



THE BROOKLINE EDUCATION 
SOCIETY AND ITS WORK 

The general aim of the society, as expressed in 
the first clause of the constitution, is "to promote 
a broader knowledge of the science of education, a 
better understanding of the methods now employed, 
and a closer sympathy and cooperation between the 
home and the school." 

During the period of rapid progress through 
which we have been passing, education has kept 
pace with other lines of social advancement, and 
has gone far beyond the knowledge and experi- 
ence of the people in the community. In order 
that the home and the school may cooperate, it is 
important that parents should know not only what 
is being attempted for their children, but the rea- 
sons upon which this action is based. In other 
words, people who have an interest in the educa- 
tion of their own or of other people's children 
need to be students of pedagogy and to become 

R 241 



242 THE BROOKLINE EDUCATION SOCIETY 

sympathetic with modern ideas, otherwise they are 
sure to be unintelHgent critics, and to make them- 
selves and other people uncomfortable through 
their lack of knowledge and appreciation. Again, 
there are in every community certain latent forces 
which may profitably be invoked for educational 
ends. There are persons of means, of leisure, and 
of culture who, if the way opens to them, are 
glad to contribute something to the public good. 
They are willing to join with others in public- 
spirited efforts for a better life, public and private. 
The aim of the Brookline Education Society has 
been to secure an aroused public interest concern- 
ing everything that touches the life and growth 
of the young in the home, in the school, and in 
the community, and to find opportunities for good 
people who are blessed with time or talents to 
render such service as will conduce to their own 
pleasure and at the same time be helpful to others. 
When this society was first formed it was thought 
best to make the organization as simple as possible, 
to permit a good degree of flexibility and infor- 
mality in all its workings. There has never been 
any occasion for adopting a different plan. The 
officers of the society consist of a president, a sec- 



AND ITS WORK 243 

retary, who also acts as treasurer, and five other 
persons who with the aforesaid constitute an ex- 
ecutive committee. This committee originates and 
matures all plans for meetings and for the general 
conduct of the society's work. Any person over 
twenty years of age may become a member upon 
application to the executive committee. In order 
that the activities of the society may be differ- 
entiated and that the aid of a large number of 
people may be enlisted, there are not less than 
nine sub-committees upon different departments of 
educational work. These committees hold meetings 
to suit their convenience, discuss the questions relat- 
ing to their own department, and initiate such lines 
of work as seem to them wise. A sub-committee is 
often invited by the executive committee to prepare 
and carry out a programme for a public meeting. 
This method is likely to be pursued more in the 
future than has been the case in the past. Each 
sub-committee usually consists of from five to ten 
members, and has authority to invite other persons 
not members to assist in the work. 

The public meetings, of which there have been 
five or six each year, have constituted the most 
prominent feature, and have perhaps been the 



244 THE BROOKLINE EDUCATION SOCIETY 

chief agency in bringing educational ideas to the 
people at large. These meetings have been quite 
informal and social. While speakers have usually- 
been invited to speak beforehand, there has been 
on almost every occasion an opportunity for free 
discussion. No attempt has been made to exploit 
any unusual or startling educational theories, neither 
has there ever been any unpleasant criticism of 
existing methods. All have seemed to appreciate 
the opportunity for conference, and have spoken 
freely or listened patiently, as the case might be. 
The subjects chosen have been those of vital inter- 
est, not only to parents but to teachers. Many 
phases of the regimen of the child's daily life in 
the home and in the school have been taken up, 
including sleep, diet, home study, recreation, amuse- 
ments, books, companions ; also certain phases of 
the course of study, as Music, Art, Literature, His- 
tory, Science, and the relation which these various 
subjects bear to the general development of the 
child. Occasionally the plan has been varied by 
having music or an informal reception at the close 
of the meeting. In connection with nearly every 
meeting there has been a good degree of social 
intercourse, and the opportunity has been afforded 



AND ITS WORK 245 

for teachers and parents to become acquainted, 
and it is certain that they have found great pleas- 
ure in doing so. With a membership of nearly 
six hundred, the numbers at the meetings have 
ranged from one hundred to three hundred, ac- 
cording to the season and other conditions. It 
has been noticed that different subjects attract dif- 
ferent people, so that while all are not able to 
come at any one time, within a given year the 
membership is probably well represented. 

Of the various sub-committees perhaps none has 
undertaken a work which is more vitally related 
to the welfare of the children in certain sections 
of the town than that on Child-Study. The mis- 
sion of this committee at first seemed rather ob- 
scure and intangible, as there were few persons 
who had time or disposition to enter upon those 
careful and scientific investigations which, under 
the name of Child-Study, have been undertaken. 
Several syllabi were issued to parents, calling for 
reports upon observations of children with respect 
to their tastes, dispositions, and early aptitudes, to 
which a limited response was made. But the com- 
mittee gradually found that in arranging to bring 
mothers together for conference regarding home 



246 THE BROOKLINE EDUCATION SOCIETY 

duties and the care of children, a large field for 
fruitful labor was open to them. It is interesting 
to note that these mothers' meetings have been held 
not only in that portion of the town where the 
people have to toil, and have very little time or 
disposition for the study of questions of education, 
but some interesting meetings have been held for 
the benefit of the well-to-do and cultured women 
of the town. In both instances mothers have been 
grateful to those who, from their wide experience 
and thoughtful attention to home matters which 
come within the sphere of the mother and the 
housekeeper, have been able to throw light upon 
many difficult questions, and to make helpful sug- 
gestions. But the most successful meetings have 
undoubtedly been those where cultured women have 
met with those less favored, and in a kind and 
tactful manner have conversed with them, and have 
both given and received suggestions ; for it has 
been the testimony of those who have assisted in 
these meetings, that they have often learned much 
from the working women which has been both help- 
ful and inspiring. The meetings have usually closed 
with an afternoon tea, and the greatest possible 
sociability has been encouraged. 



AND ITS WORK 247 

The committee on Physical Training has found 
a large and interesting field for its investiga- 
tions. Its membership has included not only those 
teachers who are especially interested in Hygiene 
and Physical Training, but several physicians and 
others have been glad to devote some time to this 
subject. Many meetings have been held when 
physical education in all its aspects has been 
considered, and valuable conclusions have been 
reached in regard to the proper procedure in the 
home and the school. The studies of the com- 
mittee have covered the whole period of child 
life from the kindergarten through the high school, 
and have included the treatment of physical de- 
fects of all kinds, recreation, sports, gymnastics, 
athletics, the relation of physical to manual train- 
ing, recess and its management, in-door and out- 
of-door gymnasiums, bathing and swimming. The 
Brookline public bath, with its fine swimming tank, 
has been regarded by the Physical Training Com- 
mittee as a most desirable adjunct to the facilities 
afforded the youth in the upper grades of the 
schools. The reports made by this committee at 
each annual meeting have been full of useful sug- 
gestions, and have helped to create a public sen- 



248 THE BROOKLINE EDUCATION SOCIETY 

timent in the community favorable to a larger 
expenditure for physical culture. 

The Committee on History has been no less 
successful in its work. It has published several 
tracts of interest upon local history, including old 
letters, valuable documents, information concerning 
old houses, historic roads, Indian trails. Brook- 
line's share in the Civil War, and bulletins giving 
directions for excursions to historic localities in 
and about Boston. Historical papers have been 
prepared by pupils in the high school. After- 
noon lectures upon the Civil War have been well 
attended ; helpful suggestions concerning the use 
of newspaper items have been furnished for the 
lower schools. The committee has also prepared 
a valuable tract upon the local history of Brook- 
line, including its geology and natural history. A 
large wall-map was prepared showing places of 
historic interest and old routes of travel. Copies 
of this map have been placed in all schools of the 
town. 

Perhaps no committee has been more systematic 
or painstaking in its work than that on Music. 
The theory that music is necessary to the child's 
fullest growth and culture has led the committee 



AND ITS WORK 249 

to invite amateur musicians to give half-hours of 
vocal and instrumental music in the schools, es- 
pecially in those sections where the children hear 
but little good music at home. During the years 
1 897- 1 898, the committee arranged two series of 
young people's concerts, in which the works of 
the great composers were interpreted by voice and 
piano. These concerts were largely attended by 
the pupils of the higher grades of the schools and 
their friends. For two summers past excellent out- 
of-door concerts have been provided on the public 
common, each of which was attended by several 
thousand people. Two very successful organ re- 
citals were given last year under the auspices of 
the committee. The last undertaking of the com- 
mittee has been to organize a People's Singing Class, 
practically free to all who wish to attend, and which 
is in charge of an accomplished musician. The 
committee, independently of the society, has raised 
a large sum of money to provide for the expenses 
of its work. 

The Art Committee has interested itself in en- 
couraging the introduction of masterpieces of art 
into the schools of the town, — a work which was 
begun some years ago by Mr. William H. Lincoln, 



250 THE BROOKLINE EDUCATION SOCIETY 

Chairman of the School Committee. While much 
in this direction has been accomplished by local 
committees made up of the patrons of the schools, 
the Art Committee has been able to give valuable 
direction to this movement, and has helped to pro- 
mote an atmosphere favorable to aesthetic training. 
Works of art to the value of six thousand dollars 
have been contributed already to the Brookline 
Schools. In the year 1897 a superb Loan Collec- 
tion of Paintings was organized under the direction 
of the Art Committee, and was opened to the pub- 
lic for two weeks. That collection will long be 
remembered as the most important and interesting 
exhibit ever made in the town. 

The Committee on Science has undertaken not 
only to interest the people in what is being done 
in the schools, but to encourage popular science 
in the home, and the annual reports of this com- 
mittee show how children may be provided with 
pictures and illustrated books for this purpose. A 
school index to the bound volumes of The Scien- 
tific Americati Supplement, from 1896 to date, a 
classified index to the electrical literature in the 
Public Library of the town, a list of references 
for use in teaching Physics in the grammar schools, 



AND ITS WORK 25 1 

are among the recent labors of this committee. 
Of late the committee has been engaged in col- 
lecting household statistics upon heating and light- 
ing, hoping that such statistics may furnish some 
practical suggestions in the line of economic 
housekeeping. 

The Committee on School Libraries has prepared 
a valuable annotated list of books on subjects 
taught in the primary and grammar grades. A 
scheme has recently been developed for a closer 
union of the public library and the schools, and the 
committee will ask the town for a considerable ap- 
propriation for the carrying out of their plans. It 
is proposed to fit up a special room in the Public 
Library, to appoint a School Librarian, and to fur- 
nish such books as the School Committee shall 
recommend, and which shall be especially suited 
to young children, and will to some extent supple- 
ment their studies. 

The Committee on Lectures has provided an 
annual course of addresses which have covered a 
wide range of topics, including Pedagogy, questions 
of social import, and the more popular issues of 
the day. 

Not long since the constitution was amended 



252 THE BROOKLINE EDUCATION SOCIETY 

SO as to provide for the organization of a Portfolio 
Committee, whose duty it is to secure contributions 
of pictures, or papers and magazines containing 
them, which are to be properly mounted and 
arranged for use in the schools in connection 
with the teaching of History and Geography. 

It is proposed to appoint other committees as 
occasion may demand. 

It is safe to assume that all parents are natu- 
rally interested in the welfare of their children, and 
anything which tends to quicken or emphasize this 
parental instinct is advantageous to the home. 

Nothing is more needed to counteract the hurry 
and pressure of modern life than a revived appre- 
ciation of the home and a keen sense of its duties 
and privileges. The ordinary citizen of to-day is 
unaware of the immense strides that have been 
made in perfecting a rational theory of education 
and in adapting that theory to the needs of the 
young. He does not know that his children's 
school in its aims and methods is diametrically 
opposed to that which he attended as a boy. The 
discussions and lectures of the Education Society, 
full reports of which have appeared in the local 
paper, have undoubtedly brought to the conscious- 



AND ITS WORK 253 

ness of people in general some sense of the great- 
ness of education and the bearing which it has 
upon the welfare of their children. In so far as 
parents become acquainted with the teachers, a 
mutual respect and sympathy is secured which per- 
mits the home and the school to work in harmony. 
Under such conditions, if difficult questions arise, 
it is easy for parent and teacher to come into 
conference and to bring about an amicable settle- 
ment. The indications are that a vast majority of 
the parents in Brookline are truly sympathetic, and 
are willing to cooperate with the teachers in every 
possible way. 

Whatever kindly sentiments toward the school 
and the teachers exist in the home are reflected 
in the attitude of the children ; and the pride 
which they take in the school, and the respect and 
love which they feel for their teachers go far to 
determine the quality of the work which they 
accomplish. Moreover, nothing so stimulates the 
teacher and calls forth his best endeavors as to 
have frequent words of approval and commenda- 
tion from the parents of his children. That the 
Education Society has created an atmosphere in 
the town favorable to good schools and to enthu- 



254 THE BROOKLINE EDUCATION SOCIETY 

siastic teaching, no one will doubt who visits the 
schoolrooms and sees how happily all are working 
for the common good, and observes the truly social 
spirit which prevails there. Teaching at best is 
wearing to the nerves, and under modern condi- 
tions, when so many burdens have been placed 
upon the school, teachers need the heartiest sup- 
port and encouragement. They have received this 
in Brookline. While there are many who do not 
understand the subtleties of modern teaching and 
are somewhat disposed to criticise, yet the testi- 
mony is that there is little of that fault-finding 
and backbiting which is so destructive of the cour- 
age and ambition of the teacher, and which often 
undermines health and strength. The teachers 
of Brookline, feeling their indebtedness to the par- 
ents for many kind acts of helpfulness and gen- 
erosity, are unremitting in their efforts to render 
the best possible service, and to elevate the schools 
to the highest point of efficiency and excellence. 

The Public Education Societies of New York and 
Brooklyn, which were formed several years ago and 
which have accomplished a great and good work in 
the reform of local educational interests, have pur- 
sued methods quite unlike those adapted to most 



AND ITS WORK 255 

communities. The Brookline Society has not at- 
tempted to reform anything, but has simply sought 
to establish cooperation in the community and to 
bring all educational forces into working relations. 
It is this principle, undoubtedly, which has com- 
mended its work to many other towns and cities 
throughout the country, so that now from forty to 
fifty such societies have been formed. Wherever 
they have built upon the broad platform of coop- 
eration, success has followed, but in several in- 
stances when attention has been directed to the 
defects of the local schools and an attempt made 
to ventilate grievances of any kind whatever, the 
society has speedily gone into a decline. Dr. 
Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, 
declared several years ago that the principle of 
educational cooperation had in it such moral value 
that it ought to become universal throughout the 
country. Nothing is more sorely needed in our 
large towns and cities than an intelligent and con- 
scientious appreciation of what education is, and a 
determination to free the schools from the entan- 
glements of politics and to call to their support 
and direction the best men and women in the 
community. 



INDEX 



Abraham, 152. 

Adams, Brooks, 229. 

Agassiz, 48. 

Altruism, 4, 138. 

Altruistic spirit, 17, 23, 1 83. 

Angelo, Michel, 152. 

Antipater, 164. 

Apperception, new term, 56; doc- 
trine of, 106. 

Art, study of, 30, 182; committee 
on, 249. 

Athletic Associations, benefit of, 20. 

Austin, Sarah, 43. 

Beecher, Henry Ward, 223. 
Bellamy, Edward, 17, 124. 
Bohannon, 68. 
Bridgeman, Laura, 136. 
Brookline Education Society, 235. 
Burke, Frederick, loi. 

Carlyle, 10. 

Centennial Exhibition of 1876, 159. 

Child study, 135, 245. 

Chinese method of administering 
justice, 66. 

Church, 35, 138, 140. 

City Wilderness, 193. 

Clubs, Debating, 20. 

College, requirements for admis- 
sion to, 115. 

Collegiate Alumnae, work of As- 
sociation of, 234. 



Comenius, 98, 151. 

Committee of National Association 

of School Superintendents, 1 1 1 ; 

questions formulated by, 112. 
Committee of Ten, report of, 114. 
Concentration, the superstructure, 

56. 

Congress, International Prison, 172. 

Cooperation : between parents and 
teachers, 15, 19; governing 
spirit of recitation, 24; through 
daily papers, 25 ; through physi- 
cal training, 31 ; need of, 34, 
140, 230. 

Correlation of studies, 56. 

Cuba, illustrating industrial pros- 
tration, 153. 

Culture, in the home, 15; result of 
true, 27; aim same as vocational 
aim, 35. 

Curriculum, power of broadened, 
33; change worked in, 45, 126. 

Darwin, 4. 

Dewey, Dr., 33, 112. 

Discipline, school, 19; by force, 

78; through studies, 80; place 

of, 84. 
Drummond, Henry, 84. 

Edison, 152. 

Education, a progressive factor, 6; 
aims of, 7, 34; growth of scope 



257 



258 



INDEX 



of, 36; determined by character 
of the age, 39, 58; function of, 
105; methods of, 203 ; factor con- 
tributing to, in community, 226. 

Eliot, President, 55, 236. 

Ellis, A. Caswell, 82. 

Elmira, 216. 

Environment, importance of, 67. 

Erasmus, 177. 

Fitch, Dr. J. G., 55. 
Franklin, 10. 

Froebel, Friedrich, 49, 52, 98, 1 08, 
151- 

Garfield, 231. 

George Junior Republic, 20. 

Gerade, 157. 

Golden Rule, 17, 155. 

Greece, 5. 

Greeks, 212. 

Harris, Dr. W. T., 109, 255. 

Herbart, 53, 56, ill. 

Herbartian Theory, 58; doctrines, 

97- 

Heredity, importance of law of, in 
school, 66. 

History, the study of, 25, 180; com- 
mittee on, 248. 

Hodges, Dean, 6, 32. 

Holland, 227. 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 127. 

Home, influence as educational fac- 
tor, 13, 67. 

Hyde, President, 183, 190. 

Hygiene, more attention should be 
given to, 212. 

Instinct, 82. 

Institution for feeble-minded chil- 
dren, 173, 174. 



Interest, no; end and means of 

education, 54. 
Irving, 40. 

Japanese law recognizing force of 

heredity, 66. 
James, Professor, 74. 

Kant, 7. 

Keller, 136. 

Kindergarten, influence of, 49; ele- 
ments of, 49; exemplifies value 
of physical and motor activity, 
102; necessity for in cities, 213. 

Language as a social instrument, 

28. 
Lincoln, William H., 249. 
Locke, John, 151. 
Luther, 177. 

Mallock, W. H., 154. 

Manual Training as social instru- 
ment, 25, 81, 159, 160, 161, 165; 
need of, 214; results of, 216. 

Mathematics, 30. 

Melanchthon, 177. 

Mill, John Stuart, 208. 

Music, social value of, 28, 182; com- 
mittee on, 248. 

Nature Study, 48, 180, 219. 
New Education, beginning of, 5. 
Newspapers, 25 ; good text-book of 
history, 129. 

Palmer, Professor George H., 29. 
Pedagogy, modern, depends on so- 
ciology, 126. 
Perez, Bernard, 205. 
Pestalozzi, 98, 149. 
Physical Training, 31, 100, 247. 



INDEX 



259 



Plato, 7, 152. 

Play as factor in education, 50. 
Progress, attitude of educators 
toward, 132. 

Reade, Charles, 157. 

Recitation, social possibilities of, 
21; governing principle of, 24. 

Reforms by Public Education So- 
ciety of New York, 254. 

Ribot, 66. 

Richter, Jean Paul, 164. 

Rousseau, 47, 98, 151. 

Ruskin, 42. 

School, relation to home, 13; as 
social institution, 16. 

Science, 11, 12, 25, 250. 

Scudder, Horace E., 232. 

Self-government, i8, 21; possibili- 
ties of, in America, 206; corner- 
stone of republic, 219. 

Sense Training, 104. 

Small, Dr. Albion W., 34. 

Socialism synonymous with Chris- 
tianity, 5. 



Societies, Literary, value of, 20. 

Sovereigns, education of, 62. 

Spencer, Herbert, 204, 226. 

Story, factor in education, 51. 

Study, courses of, in Union, 95; 
four phases of ideal course of, 98 ; 
indispensable features in modern 
course of, 107, 108, no, in. 

Teacher, social function of, 33,34; 
personality of, 36, 44; of kinder- 
garten, 47; ability to read child, 
63; an artist, 90. 

Ten, report of Committee of, 114, 

Trade schools, need of, 161. 

Twentieth Century Club, work of, 
234- 

Utility, principle of, in studies, 27, 
132. 

Vocation, 8, 10, 11, 28, 152. 

Waring, Colonel, 12, 
Work, 15; modern view of, 8; 
spirit of, 12. 



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